The staff at Qwest Field had every clue that gay couples would be
attending the WaMu Theater on July 1. After all, that night’s concert
was the Seattle stop on the True Colors tour. It starred Rosie
O’Donnell and Cyndi Lauper, the stage was decorated with a rainbow and
a pink triangle, and the event was billed as a fundraiser for
organizations to “raise awareness about the discrimination the GLBT
community still faces.” But while the B-52s played a slow song, two
lesbians who were sitting in the third row say a security guard
approached them, shined his flashlight in their faces, and then lowered
the beam onto their joined hands. He then gestured with his finger
across his throat to “cut it out” and told them to “stop it,” the women
say.
“We didn’t know what to do. He [was] a very large man. I’m not a
very big woman,” says Laura, 33, who shares a house in Ballard with her
domestic partner, Cai, 37. “It seems like if I had made a scene, he
would have ejected us.” Both women asked to be identified only by their
first names while they register a formal complaint with Qwest Field
management.
The security guard’s reprimand is the second time a gay couple has
been chided for showing affection at Seattle’s south-
downtown
sports stadiums. In May, a fan at Safeco Field complained to a security
guard about two lesbians kissing; the guard threatened to eject the
couple from the Mariners game unless they stopped. But at Qwest, they
weren’t even kissing. “At a True Colors event you should be able to
hold hands,” Laura says.
“We were very disappointed to hear someone had this kind of
experience,” says Qwest Field spokeswoman Suzanne Lavender. She says
that under Qwest’s fan “code of conduct,” holding hands is “completely
acceptable behavior for a Seahawks game, an auto show, or an Iggy Pop
concert.” She says that Qwest is now considering adding sensitivity
trainings for security guards and role-plays involving same-sex
couples. “We will take actions to make sure this doesn’t happen again,”
she says.
Josh Friedes, spokesman for LGBT advocacy group Equal Rights
Washington, says that the recent events in Qwest and Safeco Field don’t
necessarily represent a growing trend. “We’re living our lives openly
and honestly, and not living as scared as we used to be,” he says of
same-sex couples. “It’s good sign that people are not willing to take
it anymore.”
But Friedes isn’t convinced that adding sensitivity training will
stop discrimination. He says tolerance of same-sex couples must
“pervade the culture” of the sports venues’ management and staff.
In the meantime, Qwest’s commitment to resolving this issue seems
lax.
Although Qwest representatives told the couple that management would
investigate and call them back the next day, Laura says that, a week
later, she still hadn’t heard from them, so Cai contacted Qwest again.
The couple has since scheduled a meeting with Qwest for Wednesday, July
16. Laura says she and Cai want Qwest to publicly apologize and pledge
to increase sensitivity training for stadium staff. They are hoping for
the best from the meeting, but, she says, “If they try to spin it and
try to pacify us, we will take it further.” To that end, the couple has
hired a lawyer.
But for now, Seattle has only one guaranteed
lesbian-friendly
sports venue: KeyArena, where Seattle Storm games routinely transform
the stands into veritable homosexual homecomings. But the final
frontier is the two remaining stadiums—and not just for
lesbian-adored sports teams, but for football games and rock concerts.
