by EverOut Staff This week brings a bevy of food blessings, including a charcoal-grilled Thai food destination, a smash burger joint, and a bean-to-bar chocolate shop that's also a music venue. Plus, find out where to grab s'mores cream puffs and free mango lassis this weekend. For more ideas, check out our food and drink guide.

OPENINGS

8 at Ping Yang
This Thai fusion charcoal grill concept soft opened in the former OOLA space last Friday, April 18, serving dishes like Dungeness crab cakes, coconut clam chowder, lobster khao soi, and green curry pasta.
Capitol Hill

by Adam Willems

Grammy Award-winning tenor Freddie Ballentine and (equally accolade-laden) Indian-American pianist Kunal Lahiry premiered their recital Our People, a celebration of LGBTQ and Black artists and histories, at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center in December 2021. It’s a production that Ballentine, who is Black, says was a response to the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd. “It was something that represented the times, and represented us, and represented as many queer and Black people as we could imagine in one setting,” Ballentine says.

Things have changed and things haven’t changed since that 2021 debut. For one, Ballentine and Lahiry, who both grew up in the US, now live in Berlin, which is home to a “gorgeous” music scene, three great opera houses, and parties Ballentine says feature “everything that my wild little heart desires.” 

The Kennedy Center, meanwhile, is a hyperpoliticized version of the institution it once was following President Donald Trump’s purge of and ensuing self-appointment to the Center’s board, placing an executive director of allegedly “unhinged” nature at its helm. All of that against the backdrop of continuously worsening political and social conditions for many Black people, queer and trans people, immigrants, and others, who historically and presently confront fascism’s entrenchment.

Our People comes to Seattle Opera’s Tagney Jones Hall on Sunday, April 27, marking its first return to the US since 2021. And, like the political conditions to which the performance is a response, parts of the recital have changed while maintaining its core qualities. 

The recital is centered around four core pillars, tracking—the way I see it—the life cycle of many political movements. The first chapter, “Shut me out (Isolation),” highlights otherness and exclusion. Starting with the traditional spiritual “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child,” Ballentine and Lahiry also perform pieces by composer Aaron Copland (who, using present-day terms, was arguably “closeted”), as well as Black composer Margaret Bonds, whose music, Ballentine says, sometimes touches on exclusion. 

“Going up in smoke (Damnation)” looks at the AIDS crisis and at oppression as vectors of death and damnation. This section includes “The ’80s Miracle Diet” by David Krakauer and the well-known anti-lynching piece “Strange Fruit” by Abel Meeropol (recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939). Ballentine and Lahiry see the mpox epidemic as one example among many of these forms of oppression continuing today. “I got monkeypox back when [it] was going around, and I have never felt so alone,” says Ballentine. “It was shocking how quickly the government in Germany just locked us all down saying, You can't leave your houses. I never felt so close to death. If it wasn't for my really great Ukrainian refugee roommate at the time, who had a smallpox vaccine so he was protected, I don't know how I would have pulled through on that."

They follow this up with “Requiem (Remembrance),” where the performers “pay homage to those in the first and second sections” using pieces like “The Man I Love” by Earl Wild and “Dido’s Lament (When I am laid in earth)” from Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas. 

The final chapter, “So Loud, So Proud (Revolution),” includes songs like “My People” by Ricky Ian Gordon (lyrics by Langston Hughes),” Backlash Blues” by Nina Simone, and “Mr. Brown,” a piece written by Zach Redler for Ballentine and Lahiry, which honors Ballentine’s “proud, loud, and audacious” childhood chorus teacher. 

If the repertoire sounds heavy, that’s because it often is. At its Kennedy Center debut, the concert was “longer” and “sadder,” according to Ballentine, in part because of the social movements and specific injustices to which Our People was responding. The performers have truncated the sets and introduced breaks, but say “it’s almost heavier singing it now.” In addition to redoubled authoritarianism in the US, Ballentine mentioned political conditions in Germany, where four people who protested against the genocide in Gaza are potentially facing deportation. Ballentine and Lahiry also don’t know if the Kennedy Center would allow them to perform the repertoire today. 

But the recital travels on more than one wavelength. That heaviness is a means toward awareness and coalescing around shared ideas for what the human experience should look like, and offers space for levity and creativity in the process. Lahiry, for his part, just performed at the Kennedy Center, making a point to get make-up done by a drag queen before going on stage. “It is a revolution at this point in time, and that is because we as a queer community are a revolution. We are always fighting to be heard and fighting to let our natural joy and uniqueness take precedent and not be pushed down by society,” Ballentine says. 

The performers said they want to see people of all stripes at the performance, noting that parts of the recital focused on AIDS remembrance have been especially poignant for older members of the audience. At the same time, seeing the girls and the queens show up matters to the artists. (Heaviness and levity going hand in hand.) “I want the queens there. We did this for us. When we did it in Berlin, I felt so happy because Kunal and I took a peek out into the audience … and all of the people there were just our friends and loved ones from Berlin,” Ballentine says. “It was all the girls from the parties, like, they were all there ready to sit through their first fucking recital.”

Seattleites have—at least relatively speaking—a decent number of opera performances focused on social-justice issues and Black and queer culture they can attend. Last year saw drag queen Anita Spritzer perform a recital; McCaw Hall, meanwhile, was home to X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. Seattle Opera also just announced its first full production of a queer-focused opera in February 2026. Our People is in line with that repertory trend.

“I am a strong believer that artists have the obligation to be a reflection of the times and to protest whenever possible, and I think that this is a really solid way for me to use a platform and to protest,” Ballentine says. “I'm happy to sing this recital. I think it's a gorgeous collection of pieces. I think it tells a really powerful story. I think it still tells a very relevant story to what we're going through today.”

by EverOut Staff

This weekend will deliver the perfect weather (not too hot, not too cold) to run around to events from Seattle Independent Bookstore Day to the 22nd Annual White Center Khmer New Year Street Festival and from SOUK سياتل Charity Pop-up Market to the Seattle/King County Clinic. For more ideas, check out our top event picks of the week.

FRIDAY PARTIES & NIGHTLIFE

SZA Dance Night
Are you considering killing your ex? Redirect that energy with this SZA-centric dance party featuring your favorite songs from CTRL and SOS, as well as jams from fellow R&B/hip-hop queens like Doechii, Jorja Smith, Rihanna, and Summer Walker. AUDREY VANN
(Chop Suey, Capitol Hill, $15)

With his latest film The Shrouds, the 82-year-old Canadian filmmaker homes in on the reality that these bodies of ours will one day rot away or be reduced to ashes. It’s an unsettling truth that's easy to stuff aside, even as we watch a loved one lowered into the earth. by Robert Ham

This review originally appeared in the Portland Mercury. 

David Cronenberg’s chief cinematic obsession has long been the human body and all the painful, pleasurable, and generally fucked up things that people do with their corporeal forms. But in every case—from the 1970 Crimes of the Future to the 2022 Crimes of the Future (which was not a remake of the 1970 film), the beings at the center of his work deal with unusual growths, wild physical transformations, or the hunger to be penetrated in any number of ways.

With his latest film The Shrouds, the 82-year-old Canadian filmmaker homes in on the reality that these bodies of ours will one day rot away or be reduced to ashes. It’s an unsettling truth that's easy to stuff aside, even as we watch a loved one lowered into the earth.

The Shrouds' central character Karsh (Vincent Cassel) chooses to face this fate head on. After his beloved wife passes, he develops a high-tech cerecloth to wrap her corpse in that allows him to watch every step of her decay. The grieving billionaire is not alone in this bizarre postmortem voyeurism; he operates a series of cemeteries where other mourners can check in on their loved one’s decomposition via a smartphone app and a screen on the headstone.

As ever, Cronenberg presents all of this as beautifully as possible. Prototypes of the shrouds look like sexy wraiths, hanging on the walls of a restaurant built next to the cemetery where Karsh’s wife is buried. And the lines of tall markers for each gravesite look like a gorgeous, brutalist cityscape. It’s only when the director wraps a dramatic story arc around this rough skeleton of a concept that The Shrouds gets grubby. 

Beginning with a group of possibly-Icelandic eco-activists upending several tombstones at Katch’s Toronto cemetery, including that of his wife, the story spins in a half-dozen dizzying directions. Katch’s sister-in-law (Diane Kruger) and her ex-husband (a dithering, miscast Guy Pearce) figure prominently, as does a potentially dangerous AI avatar called Hunny (voiced by Kruger). There’s also the young wife of a dying billionaire negotiating the opening of a new cemetery in Budapest, and the former lover turned palliative care doctor of Katch’s wife—who may (or may not) be wrapped up in the whole mess.

What makes the shower of ideas splattering the screen slightly easier to swallow is the knowledge that Cronenberg initially conceived The Shrouds as a TV series for Netflix. When the streaming service passed on it, he apparently built this film by fusing the scripts for that show’s first two episodes. With a larger canvas, stretched over 10 hours, there’s every chance Cronenberg could have explored this dark and profound territory in more depth. But with only two skittish hours at his disposal, the director barely cracks the topsoil.

The Shrouds opens today, Fri April 25, in theaters around Seattle.

Seattle's Only News Roundup by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good morning! We’ve got three more days of this perfect weather, and the universe very kindly made two of them a weekend. These are the days that out-of-towners don’t know exist here. Go hang out at a street-end park. Look for mushrooms in the arboretum. (But only eat them if you know what you’re doing!) Lock down a grill at Golden Gardens at an absurdly early hour, and text everyone you know.

But before all that, let’s stock up on the news so you can put it out of your mind for a few days.

Tesla Tax: We’re in the last few days of our state legislative session, and Dems came up with a delightful new way to help close our budget shortfall: a tax on Elon Musk. Oooobviously it doesn’t call him out by name. Instead, it specifically taxes the companies that made “windfall profits” from our state’s “cap and trade” style system for car manufacturers. (It’s way easier for companies to accrue emissions credit when they never made combustion engines in the first place.) State Republicans are calling it a targeted attack on Tesla; the bill’s sponsor, House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon, said the data on our car-emission credits shows “one outlier” (Tesla) who is “very profitable,” and has built up most of the credits under the state’s program. “I don’t care who the CEO is,” Fitzgibbon said. I do. He’s been profiting off of American taxpayers for a decade, and he’s now literally the richest man in the world. Let’s get him.

Flip Flop: But in a good way. As of yesterday, eight international students at UW and Seattle U had gotten their legal status back. The reversals seemed to happen out of the blue—not as the result of a judge’s order. It’s a huge relief for the students, but one of the students’ lawyers reminded the Seattle Times that even though they’ve regained their status, there is “still plenty of damage” done by the administration to these students—including damage to their reputations and disruption of their studies. “[The government] might just be trying to brush it under the rug,” another lawyer warned. The Trump administration not taking responsibility for their actions? Never. 

FBI Arrests Judge: This can’t be good. Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, tweeted and then deleted a post on X saying that they’d arrested Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan for obstructing the ICE arrest of an immigrant in her court (ally). According to local reports, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz was in Dugan’s courtroom for a pre-trial conference last week, for three misdemeanor counts of battery. When ICE arrived with an arrest warrant for him, Dugan took Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer to a side door in the courtroom, directed them down a private hallway, and into a public area. He didn’t evade arrest for long—ICE pursued him on foot and arrested him shortly after. CNN reports that Dugan’s in federal custody, waiting for her first appearance. 

Target on ActBlue: Trump is siccing his administration on the main fundraising platform used by Democratic campaigns, and liberal and progressive orgs. In a memo to the AG and the treasury yesterday, he claimed that ActBlue is facilitating "illegal 'straw donor' and foreign contributions in American elections." This is all part of an explicit effort by Trump and Republicans in Congress to undermine Democrats’ and the left’s ability to campaign, and it’s already spooking organizations around the country that depend on this infrastructure.

LOL DOGE: Elon really is the punchline that keeps on giving. A new report from a nonprofit organization that studies the federal workforce called the Partnership for Public Service came up with a rough estimate of the cost of DOGE’s firings, re-hirings, lost productivity, and paid leave of thousands of workers. The total? Upward of $135 billion this fiscal year. What did Elon say he was ultimately saving the American taxpayers? $150 billion. Thanks for shaving that $15 billion off, bro. Looking forward to that $440 DOGE dividend check.

Superintendent Reykdal Showed the Fuck Up: Yesterday was the Trump administration’s deadline for K-12 schools to certify that they would not implement DEI programs, dangling the threat of their federal funding. In return, Washington state Superintendent Chris Reykdal told him where to shove it. “We will not sign additional certifications that lack authority, lack clarity, or are an assault on the autonomy of states and local school districts,” he wrote when the order first came down earlier this month. “We’re not going to walk away from teaching authentic history or supporting our students with disabilities or any of our DEI and equity work,” he told the Seattle Times yesterday. And we’re in good company: We’re joined by 18 other states who have refused to certify. Who’re the bootlickers? New Hampshire got an extra special shout-out from the Secretary of Ed for not just certifying that they wouldn’t do the “illegal DEI,” but building a whole website to tout each district’s certification. Ew.

Tomorrow is Indie Bookstore Day, and Seattle takes it seriously. Starting tomorrow, you’ve got 10 days to hit all 29 participating local lit shops. If you fill your passport, you get a 25 percent one-time discount at every store.

Parents Bill of Rights Heads to Ferg: The state Democrats’ version of the so-called Parents Bill of Rights is headed to the governor's desk. The new bill actually adheres to state law by eliminating language that grants parents access to their child's school-based medical and mental health records—protecting vulnerable kids like LGBTQ students. State Republicans threw a proper fit over the bill. One even delayed the vote by just standing up and yelling a lot. But it ultimately passed on party lines. 

Remember George Santos? The 36-year-old gay Republican who lied his way to Congress and was then kicked out of it less than a year in? The disgraced New York representative and sunglass icon was sentenced today to 87 months in prison. Last year, he pleaded guilty to deceiving donors and stealing the identities of nearly a dozen people, including his family members, to fund his (totally made up) winning campaign. At the time, he agreed to pay roughly $580,000 in penalties, and today, the judge decided what kind of prison time is going to be tacked onto that. His attorneys thought two years is reasonable, but prosecutors pushed for seven because he “remains unrepentant.” I’m guessing plugging his $100 Cameo profile right before sentencing probably didn’t help. Neither did calling them a “cabal of pedophiles.”  

Festival News: It’s been a weird year for festivals. Capitol Hill Block Party is down to two days, and Day In Day Out announced that they’re taking 2025 off, but Modest Mouse won’t be deterred: they’re starting their very own music festival at Remlinger Farms. Called the Psychic Salamander Festival, it’s co-presented by the Seattle Theatre Group and will run on September 13 and 14. They even have a lineup already: Both nights will be headlined by Modest Mouse, but before that, you can see The Flaming Lips, Courtney Barnett, Built to Spill, the Vaudevillian and Mattress, Sleater-Kinney, Yo La Tengo, Friko, and Sun Atoms. Single-day tickets are $125, or you can go for the whole weekend for $225.

Here’s a little La Lom to ease you into Friday. And speaking of Remlinger Farms, they’ll be there next month!

by EverOut Staff

Ready for another round of ticket drops? Carnation music fest Thing is switching things up this year with a series of concerts featuring Father John Misty, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Mon Laferte, and the Roots. Longtime friends Band of Horses & Iron and Wine, who recorded a covers album together in 2015, are teaming up once again for a joint headline tour. Plus, we’re giving you a heads up to snag tickets next week for Modest Mouse’s Psychic Salamander Festival featuring the Flaming Lips, Courtney Barnett, Sleater-Kinney, Yo La Tengo, and more. Read on for details on those and other newly announced events, plus some news you can use.

ON SALE FRIDAY, APRIL 25

MUSIC

Andy Bell of Erasure: Ten Crowns Tour
The Showbox (Thurs Dec 4)

Autoheart: The Heartlands Tour
Neptune Theatre (Fri Nov 14)

Band of Horses & Iron and Wine
Marymoor Park (Thurs Sept 18)

Did you see someone? Say something! by Anonymous

Friday Phish show, Row X, 50th Bday party

I was in your row at Phish, lame dude was being “aggressively enthusiastic” and you asked me to stand between him and ya’ll. Would love to see you!

Hailstorm Hottie (ugh)

You were walking your dog when we were caught in that freak 3/13 hailstorm. The hail was cold, your smile was warm - would love to grab some hot cocoa

Nerdy Weird Nice Guy

Hey Andrew from Ozzie’s. Don’t red shirt yourself again. Find me on Bumble. - Debbie

Thai Crochet cardigan

You: dark beard, crochet cardigan eating pork belly at Thaiku and reading a book. I thought you were cute and sweet. Me: gray sweater & cool leg brace

Rite of Spring smiles

You sat 3 rows in front of me (Orchestra Right, Row P) at the symphony 3/15. You-Patrick Stewart vibes. Me-auburn hair, big smiles.

Roanoke Inn

You said my hair made me look like a mermaid. You were so pleasant + nice, great vibes! I am looking for more lady friends - want to share some tots?

Mariners Man with Mountainous Mutt

I've seen you at several Mariners Bark at the Park games. You: tall lumberjack with a matching Newfy. Me: also tall, no dog but want to pet you both.

Pussy riot show 

We both had leather jackets and talked a little. You (kat) me (zuzu). You were older than me (femme late 20s) We talked about the show and our jackets as well as the beer we drank wish I saw you again.

Is it a match? Leave a comment here or on our Instagram post to connect!

Did you see someone? Say something! Submit your own I Saw U message here and maybe we'll include it in the next roundup!

by EverOut Staff

Yes, Seattle has market-fresh seafood and one of the best coffee scenes in the country, and is home to the Seattle dog. But there's no denying: Seattle is teriyaki town. In the late 1970s, Toshi Kasahara started serving the masses chargrilled chicken slathered with his signature sauce atop a bed of steaming rice, popularizing the dish and pioneering a wave of teriyaki shops all over the city. Quality, portion size, proximity to your house, and even salad dressing are all contributing factors to what can be considered the city's "best" teriyaki, but here are a few of our favorites.

Grillbird
As a lifelong vegetarian and Seattleite, I am extremely skeptical of the tofu teriyaki in this city. Most teriyaki restaurants don’t offer non-meat dishes, and if they do, it’s usually a sad slab of raw tofu with a little side of sauce. As far as I can tell, West Seattle’s Grillbird is the only restaurant that’s filling this gap. Grillbird makes marinated sesame tofu and fried cauliflower that is crispy, flavorful, and saucy enough to seep down and coat your rice. Plus, they offer mouthwatering sides, including a tart cucumber salad and, in my opinion, the world’s best macaroni salad. The shop doesn't have indoor dining, but you can take it to go for a nourishing, reasonably priced meal to eat in front of the TV. AUDREY VANN

Seattle's Only Morning News Roundup. by Charles Mudede

KOMO, rolling its eyes: "Be ready to get turned away from driving into Pike Place Market." Have pedestrians finally won this long and stupid war? Have those in power at last seen the light? Hardly. The Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority (PDA) bills this ban as nothing bigger than a pilot program. Meaning, it may or may not last. And, by the way, the program doesn't run the full length of the street. Only half of it. And, by the way, a considerable part of Pike Street is under construction. (Seattle Public Utilities is tearing up sections of the street and sidewalk for repairs and improvements.) This work will end on July 18, at which time, I suspect, the ban will be lifted. In truth, cars really couldn't go down Pike Street during construction anyway, so little to no enlightenment played a role in the ban.

I visited Pike Street on the day it was kind of liberated, April 23, and soon found the calm that never fails to settle in a place with little or no rumblings or roars from the world's most wasteful mode of transportation. You can even hear other humans better. "Bruce, what the hell is wrong with you?" A young woman said this to a boy who tried to kick a pigeon that was doing nothing but minding its own business.  

A Pike Place business owner claims that the closing of Pike Street has already cost them business? On day one? That's all it took for the sky to start falling? Are we to believe the business owner exists in a world that has never heard of the expression: "give it a chance"? Or does KIRO Newsradio not want to give the pilot program a chance? It is, I believe, the latter. You see, what the business owner actually said (“Whenever the street is closed, the people stop coming into the building as much and my line disappears”) is different from what the story's headline says: "Pike Place Market business owner says street closure stalls sales." Expect to see this kind of manipulation in the days to come. Our culture is built to see anything that poses even the slightest challenge to cars as an extinction-level threat to the greatest freedom America has ever known.   

We could reach and even pass 70 today, which is, of course, as hot as any day should ever be. Beyond 70, misery. Beyond 75, the sun becomes nothing but a bully in the sky. The German philosopher Hegel once wrote that "history is not the soil in which happiness grows. The periods of happiness in it are the blank pages of history." I feel the same way about sunny days. They are blank. There's not much to say about them.

Alaska Airlines was stung by the first quarter. It lost $166 million, though it made $3.1 billion. And this bad news arrived just as Trump's tariffs and economic confusion made it difficult for the airline to see a return to profitability in the near future. The company, however, plans to hold its chin up and move forward. In the famous words of Conan the Barbarian: What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. That's the spirit.

Skye at Belltown, a modernist tower designed in 1955 by Earl Morrison, the same architect behind the Olive Tower, was sold for $102.7 million, Puget Sound Business Journal reports. The Belltown building, first named Grosvenor House, then Wall Street Tower, has it all: 371-units, great views of the Space Needle, and a rich local history.  The sale's broker told PSBJ that the deal marked the return of institutional investors "from the sidelines."

Will the people of Washington State find something better to do than pointing lasers at passing airplanes? KING 5 reports that there's been 438 such strikes since March. (There were just 23 in 2023, and 383 in 2024.) Pointing a laser at a plane is, if you don't know, a federal offense that could cost you $250,000 or 5 years. The FBI is now asking the public to name names. The Federal Aviation Administration is rightly frustrated. Unlike so many other puerile practices, the exact pleasure in this one is impossible to find. 

Trump ignited a trade war, crashed the markets, and now China is in no mood to end it. They didn't start the fire. New York Times: "Stocks Waver as China Calls Reports of U.S. Tariff Talks ‘Baseless’" So, Trump's administration is not even really talking to China. It's talking to (manipulate) the market. It must not be forgotten that none of this had to happen. Behind this chaos, you won't find a meaningful cause. This is why those who think there's some kind of deep scheming going on (like: he is destroying the market so that bond rates fall) are mistaken. Trump just doesn't know what the fuck he is doing. All he knows is he must look like he is doing something.

For example, Trump is now trying to turn down the tariff hot air because the CEOs Walmart, Target, and Home Depot told him, behind closed doors, that his trade war with China would "disrupt supply chains and lead to empty shelves in the coming weeks." The amazing thing about this story is someone had to spell it out for him. Someone had to tell him how the American economy actually works. The understanding among these CEOs is he knows jack. And they are right about that.

Let's end Slog AM with this chill tune by Waikiki Sweet Heart: 

Do you need to get something off your chest? Submit an I, Anonymous and we'll illustrate it! by Anonymous

This is a love letter to my friends:

To the ones who always will revel in my joy.

The ones who offer their shoulders when I cry.

The ones who say I don't care it's Thursday, come over and have dinner with us.

The ones who are silent but I know are still there.

The ones who send me pictures of things that reminded them of me.

The ones I didn't even realize cared about me.

The ones who let me vent and bitch and moan over the same problems.

The ones who have made me who I am.

Everything will turn out okay as long as I have my friends. I love you all.

Do you need to get something off your chest? Submit an I, Anonymous and we'll illustrate it! Send your unsigned rant, love letter, confession, or accusation to ianonymous@thestranger.com. Please remember to change the names of the innocent and the guilty.

Seattle PrideFest, which throws the event on Capitol Hill and another at the end of the parade in Seattle Center, lost $75,000, a third of its sponsorship funding. Today, it launched a GoFundMe to cover the loss. The organization that throws the parade, Seattle Pride, expects to come up $350,000 short of its $1.5 million budget this year. by Vivian McCall

Corporate sponsors are dropping off pride parades like flies this year.

After 30 years of boozy support for its hometown pride, brewer Anheuser-Busch left a bigger hole in the St. Louis Pride Parade budget than a runaway Coors Light Party Train. Then it linked arms with Comcast and Diageo to pull the rug out from under San Francisco Pride. The name Diageo may not ring a bell, but it’s basically a parent company for cocktails. Diageo owns Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, Baileys and Guinness (new motto: Kiss me, I’m Irish. Unless you’re gay, yuck).

The situation isn’t too different in Seattle: Both of our major pride organizations are struggling this year.

Seattle PrideFest, which throws the event on Capitol Hill and another at the end of the parade in Seattle Center, lost $75,000, a third of its sponsorship funding. Today, it launched a GoFundMe to cover the loss.

PrideFest Executive Director Egan Orion says it’s a one two punch of a major funder going through bankruptcy and companies “either pulling back on DEI efforts or using the political environment as an excuse to cut funding to Pride events and other diversity outreach.”

The organization that throws the parade, Seattle Pride, expects to come up $350,000 short of its $1.5 million budget this year. Like PrideFest, Seattle Pride is also seeking donations. Executive Director Patti Hearn says no company has outright dropped Seattle Pride, but they have been slower to commit than usual. By April, Hearn says the nonprofit usually knows better what they’ll have to spend. The deadline for companies to sponsor pride is May 11. (Full disclosure: The Stranger is one of Seattle Pride’s media sponsors this year.)

Corporate foot dragging is part of the problem, but Seattle Pride has done its fair share of dumping, too. It started vetting sponsors more carefully this year, looking not just at workplace policies but political donations, lobbying, labor, supply chain ethics, contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), connections to private prisons, and military ties. For that last reason, Seattle Pride didn’t bother with Boeing this year, but it’s not operating on a one strike policy. Any flag raised during the vetting process prompts a conversation, either with employees or the companies themselves.

Not that Seattle Pride is in boardrooms with the bigwigs. When companies sponsor a pride event, the details are worked out by the check-cutting department or the queer employee resource group. People who are not calling the shots about a company’s image or “culture,” but are trying to work something out in the meantime. Seattle Pride told some companies that they could make a donation without putting their logo on anything.

“We’re talking to them about what their values are and what makes sense for them to show up,” Hearn says. “We hope they can push that they have some agency in their large companies.”

We compared Seattle Pride’s sponsors this year to lists from 2023 and 2024 and noticed a few missing names. We checked up on their plans.

Amazon, whose affinity group for LGBTQ employees (Glamazon), sponsored Seattle Pride in 2024 said it would get back to us and didn’t. REI sent a long statement that its approach to Pride Month is “grounded in our broader commitment to supporting LGBTQ+ communities everywhere we operate, all year long.” REI said it moved away from sponsoring prides in 2019, when it was a gold-level sponsor for Seattle Pride. But last year, the company’s LGBTQ employee resource group was a lower-level supporter.

GoDaddy says it is still in the planning process. Google says it hasn’t made a decision on sponsoring pride. TMobile says it’s still finalizing its plans and wouldn’t confirm if it intended to sponsor Seattle Pride.

Target didn’t respond to a request for comment. Neither did Assurant, the video game company Bungie, healthcare company Optum, Mastercard, Charles Schwab, KeyBank, Molina Healthcare, and PACCAR.

Not every company is shying away from Pride. Alaska Airlines is this year’s presenting sponsor. Starbucks is sponsoring Seattle Pride, “as it has for many years.” So is Fred Meyer and QFC, The Pokémon Company, University of Washington Medicine, Brooks, Symetra, Umpqua Bank, BECU, Nordstrom, Puget Sound Energy, Salesforce, Greystar, Overlake Hospital, Philips, Kaiser Permanente Washington, and Delta Dental of Washington which said it remains “committed (if not more than ever) to our DEI efforts internally and externally.” Seattle Children’s, which has paused surgeries for transgender people under 19 and won’t explain why, is also sponsoring Pride this year. (Smirnoff, whose parent company Diageo pulled out of San Francisco Pride, is sponsoring PrideFest. We asked about that apparent contradiction, but the company wouldn’t answer questions on the record).

We asked Los Angeles’s and New York City’s Prides if they’re seeing a similar trend. NYC Pride answered with a positive spin. Two-thirds of its sponsors had doubled down in support of the community. It was still talking to the last third, some of whom were “delaying decision-making.” Overall, it expected to be out $350,000 this year and encouraged the community to donate and volunteer.

How big a loss is this really? Plenty in LGBT community do not give a care for corporate-sponsored prides simply because they can be kind of lame (as former Stranger writer Matt Baume wrote about) and disingenuous. Airline floats and rainbow corporate koozies from some insurance company don’t exactly move me to tears, either.

There’s a good argument to look back to the old days when pride was a protest. It’s the one that Dyke Marches make every year in cities across the country (the Seattle Dyke Alliance could not be reached for comment). Trans Pride in Seattle doesn’t work with corporations or the Seattle Police Department. It’s proud to subsist on small donations, grants and community support, says Danni Askini, executive director of Gender Justice League, which organizes Trans Pride. Askini says GJL’s heart goes out to Seattle Pride.

“As trans people we sadly know all too well what it is like to have such fair weather friends as these corporations,” she wrote in an email. “Cowardly corporations can never cancel our shared pride.”

And they are cowardly. Corporate America goes where (it thinks) the money is. By the 2010s, most Fortune 500 companies decided gay was good. Big business adopted anti-discrimination policies. It threw its monied heft behind marriage equality. America’s CEOs had not had a sudden change of heart. America had a change of culture and they’d noticed. It made good business sense to glide along with the culture. Now that (they think) they’re seeing another shift, they’ve made another cold calculation. Even before that public shift, companies regularly talked out both sides of their mouths, professing a commitment to equality while bankrolling anti-gay, Trumpy Republicans aligned with their business interests. (As Baume also noted, Seattle Pride took money from corporations like that). Spineless or not, it’s obviously bad that companies are changing their tune over fear of retribution and a perception that American culture is turning against queer people.

Seattle Pride’s Hearn understands where the eye rolling is coming from. The first corporate logos she saw at a pride in the early 2000s were off-putting. But she’s learned sponsorships keep big events accessible. Over the phone, she ticked off the baseline costs for the parade and Pride in the Park: Tents and toilets—$145,000. Staffing, talent, ASL interpreters and ADA-accessible seating—$70,000. Security and radios—$50,000. City permits and insurance—$40,000. It’s not cheap.

Drag Queen Betty Wetter, emcee of Pride in the Park and host of the popular drag show Tush at Clock Out Lounge, is done with private corporate events. Even if it is a good way to make money in June, her career is stable enough that she can pick and choose what feels genuine. The way she sees it, the way the world is changing for queer people, there’s no use carrying on as normal.

“We have to let go of the idea that life is going to continue,” she says.

The community likes to joke that on July 1, corporations drop queer people like a fruit basket. Wetter says the reality of that joke hasn’t sunk in for everyone, that queer people have come to believe they need these companies.

In Wetter’s perfect gay world, unsanctioned in-your-face protest would take over. Pride in Seattle would be more like the first. But she knows people expect joy from her at Pride; she’s going to give the people what they want—or need. In the months since President Donald Trump has been back in office, her DM’s have been an outpouring of thanks after every show. They tell her Tush was the one night a month they felt happy, that her performances keep them going.

“I think joy is necessary,” she says. “Definitely throughout the day, I will be speaking my mind. Talking about how I feel [and] giving any opposition that Pride will allow.”

One really great thing to do every day of the week. by Audrey Vann WEDNESDAY 4/23  

Kelly Goto with Lori Matsukawa and Seattle Kokon Taiko

(BOOKS/MUSIC) Once upon a time, Seattle had a homegrown comic chronicling Japanese American life with a little bit of samurai swagger. From 2012 to 2018, artist Sam Goto drew Seattle Tomodachi (“friend of Seattle”) for the North American Post, capturing stories of immigration, incarceration, and resilience with heart and idiosyncratic humor. His daughter, "global lecturer" and author Kelly Goto, revives his legacy in Seattle Samurai: A Cartoonist’s Perspective of the Japanese American Experience, blending cartoons, family memories, and big feels. Catch her in convo with Emmy award-winning broadcast journalist and local legend Lori Matsukawa, plus a badass drumming session by Seattle Kokon Taiko. (Town Hall, 7:30 pm, all ages) LINDSAY COSTELLO

THURSDAY 4/24  

Book Signing: Mamrie Hart, All I Think About Is Food

Mamrie Hart will be signing copies of her new book at Book Larder on Thursday! COURTESY OF WW Norton

(FOOD & DRINK/BOOKS) With her popular YouTube channel, You Deserve a Drink, New York Times bestselling author, comedian, and podcast host Mamrie Hart was a part of the wave of circa 2011 YouTubers that included personalities like Grace Helbig, Tyler Oakley, and Hannah Hart of My Drunk Kitchen. Her chaotic cocktail-making videos combined her bartending job with her flair for the dramatic (not to mention a penchant for puns, sexual innuendo, and pop culture references), and each comes with its own built-in drinking game. Over a decade after the inception of You Deserve a Drink, Hart is back with her third book, All I Think About is Food: A Vegetarian Cookbook That'll Keep the Party Going, a compendium of fun, retro-inspired vegetarian party bites ranging from artichokes Rockefeller to pink pickled eggs. And of course, there are plenty of show-stopping cocktails, like saffron 75s and flaming cherries jubilee martinis. (Book Larder, 6 pm, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

FRIDAY 4/25  

Kylie Minogue and Rita Ora

(MUSIC) If you haven't heard about the cultural phenomenon that is Kylie Minogue's "Padam Padam," then I suggest that you catch up on your herstory STAT. During the summer of 2023, the song took the queer community by storm, echoing through Pride parades, clubs, and Sephoras around the globe. The sleeper hit came nearly four decades into her career, evidence of Minogue's superstardom and staying power. The Princess of Pop will return to Seattle for the first time since 2002 to support her two-part album Tension. I am crossing my fingers that she'll also sing some older tracks from her early-aughts nu-disco staple Fever and '80s bubblegum pop debut, Kylie. Oh yeah, and British pop phenom Rita Ora is opening—no big deal! (Climate Pledge Arena, 7:30 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

SATURDAY 4/26  

Seattle Indie Bookstore Day

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(BOOKS) Seattle’s Independent Bookstore Day is more like Seattle’s Independent Bookstore 10 Days, because once again, local lit retailers have banded together to present the Passport Challenge. It’s an invitation for bibliophiles to visit as many participating bookshops as they can between April 26 and May 5 and gather stamps from each location. If you fill your passport with all 29 participating shops, you earn a one-time 25-percent discount to use at every store, valid for a full year. Participants include Charlie’s Queer Books, Elliott Bay Book Company, Fantagraphics, Left Bank, Ada’s Technical Books, Secret Garden Bookshop, Book Larder, Paper Boat Booksellers, Queen Anne Book Company, and literally 20 others. Find the full details—and a helpful map!—at seattlebookstoreday.com. (Various locations) MEGAN SELING

SUNDAY 4/27  

Ziwe’s America

(COMEDY) Although Showtime tragically canceled her pink-hued, confrontation-as-comedy show in 2023 after a mere two seasons, Ziwe Fumudoh's button-pressing 2022 interview with Chet Hanks is still the stuff of legend. The snazzy satirist and queen of discomfort has a gift for finding "iconic guests" (Fran Lebowitz, Gloria Steinem, Stacey Abrams) and bringing out cringe-inducing behavior in privileged people (Andrew Yang, Hannibal Buress, Adam Pally, Caroline Calloway). She tends to do it all in Cher Horowitz-chic outfits. What's not to love (or be mildly nervous about)? She'll drop by Seattle to remind us that Earth is in its flop era. (Neptune Theatre, 7:30 pm, all ages) LINDSAY COSTELLO

MONDAY 4/28  

Mereba

(MUSIC) If you're waiting around for Solange to release a follow-up to 2019's When I Get Home, resist the urge to send her passive-aggressive Instagram comments that she will never see and instead find yourself some artists with a similar sound and ethos—Alabama-born singer, songwriter, and rapper Mereba is just that. Like Solange, her sound pulls inspiration from neo-soul, jazz, reggae, poetry, and electronic music for profoundly reflective ethereal songs (listen to her track "White Doves" to see what I mean). Don't miss her on tour supporting her latest album, The Breeze Grew A Fire. (The Showbox, 8 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

TUESDAY 4/29  

Gary Bartz

(MUSIC) Look, I hate to be the one to say it, but there will come a day when we will no longer have opportunities to see the jazz titans of the '60s and '70s perform live. So take a moment to appreciate that we exist during a time when you can see legends like Gary Bartz play his alto saxophone for less than $40. Bartz is widely known for his collaborations with household names like Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Art Blakey, and Miles Davis. He is also a trailblazer in preserving and honoring the legacy of Black American music, bringing together Afrocentric themes and avant-garde music on his 1971 album Harlem Bush Music. Don't miss Bartz as he supports his upcoming not-yet-named solo album, produced by Om’Mas Keith (Frank Ocean, Erykah Badu, John Legend). (Jazz Alley, April 29–30, 7:30 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

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Seattle's only News Roundup by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good Morning! It keeps being shiny outside. It’ll be a little warmer today than yesterday, squarely in the mid-60s. It’s supposed to be this beautiful all week, but spring is fickle, and she can take it away at any moment. Enjoy it while you can.

Alright, let’s dive into the news.

The Wealth Tax Makes a Comeback: But just a little one, as a treat. The state legislature has until Sunday to come up with a budget that balances our multi-billion dollar shortfall without giving Governor Ferguson the scaries. Ferg has refused to sign a budget that has a full and proper wealth tax, but he’s said he’s willing to do a “test,” and Dems are taking him up on it: a $100 million tax (rather than $4 billion) to see if it can hold up to a legal challenge. It’s not the wealth tax we deserve, but it’d be a start. There’s already a $1.5 million campaign from T-Mobile, Costco, Alaska Airlines, and Microsoft to fight new progressive tax structures, so it’s not unreasonable to think a challenge is coming. But this is a chance to prove that it can hold up.

RFK Won’t Say Gay: Speaking of budgets, this is one I’d like to personally kick in the dick. According to a leaked HHS budget draft, the department plans to get rid of services for LGBTQ youth who call 988, the national suicide and crisis hotline. LGBTQ youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide, and right now, the hotline has counselors who are trained to work with queer kids: understanding the stress caused by recent political attacks, the importance of using appropriate pronouns, and the ways in which the youth often face lack of family support and harassment. The queer youth-specific counselors have received 1.3 million calls, texts, or chats since the program launched in 2022, and in February, they received an average of 2,100 contacts per day. The budget isn’t a sure thing: the change would have to be approved by Congress, but if it were, it’d go into effect in October. Remember when the Trump administration said it wanted more babies? Let this be a reminder that they only want to fill America with cis, straight, white babies.

Yesterday was Special Election night, and the (early) results are in. The King County AFIS levy, which renewed funding for our regional fingerprint and palmprint database, has about 60 percent of the vote this morning and looks like it’s going to pass. Why are we worried? There aren’t enough guardrails to keep that information from getting to the Feds—and specifically to immigration enforcement.

Get Your Hand Shaven Noodles While You Can: Shanghai Garden announced that it’s closing at the end of the month. The family-run spot has been in the CID since 1990, and their hand-shaven barleygreen noodles have been a staple comfort food for generations of Seattleites. (The chew! How do they get that chew??) According to Bethany Jean Clement at the Seattle Times, they’re telling a familiar story: prices are up, and business never really recovered after the pandemic. Go show them some love before they close.

Buckling Bridge: Put those on the list of words I never want to hear together. According to SDOT, the Carbon River Bridge is “permanently closed” to all traffic—cutting off Highway 165 to the northwest of Mount Rainier National Park—because its 103-year-old support beams are buckling. If you’re annoyed that getting to Rainier will be tougher this season, I get it. But take a look at these photos of the beams. That is not how you want to die.

BREAKING NEWS: Oreo has announced its newest flavor, and honestly, we’re intrigued.

 

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An Earth Day Surprise: The day before Earth Day, the EPA informed more than 450 employees working on environmental justice and DEI that they will either be fired or reassigned. “This is the first step in a broader effort to ensure that EPA is best positioned to meet its core mission of protecting human health and the environment and Powering the Great American Comeback,” the agency wrote. “It’s a gut punch but long expected,” one employee told the Washington Post. “Announcing a [reduction in force] of the EJ program on the eve of Earth Day is sick and shows exactly who they are.”

Meanwhile, a research team from Dartmouth College estimated that the world’s biggest corporations have caused $28 trillion in climate damage, which, for comparison, is a smidge less than the value of all goods and services that the US produced last year. Unsurprisingly, more than half that figure comes from 10 fossil fuel companies: Saudi Aramco, Gazprom, Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, National Iranian Oil Co., Pemex, Coal India, and the British Coal Corporation. The study could make it easier to hold these companies accountable for their actions, like the tobacco companies have been. Let’s start revving up those lawsuits.

Witch Hunt: Remember how creepy the White House was on Easter? With the laying-on hands and the giant Easter Bunny? Trump’s still leaning in on the Devout Christian Performance. The VA has now directed employees to report any incidents that they perceive as “hostile to Christian views.” The move is aimed at aligning with the Trump administration's executive order to "end the anti-Christian weaponization of government," according to an internal email. They even made a very special email address for it: Anti-ChristianBiasReporting@va.gov. Obviously, any personal religious practice is already protected by the First Amendment. This is just making sure we all know which religion they care about.

Durbin Stepping Down: Illinois Senator Dick Durbin announced that he wouldn’t be running for a fifth term next year, putting more pressure on the party to get its act together when it was already looking like a difficult path to reclaiming a majority. “I truly love the job of being a United States senator,” said the 80-year-old. “But in my heart I know it’s time to pass the torch.” It’s time for some new blood!

Wildfire in New Jersey: So far, more than 18 square miles have burned in the Jersey Pine Barrens, and it’s expected to burn for days before it’s contained.The AP reports that wildfires are actually common in the area (we see you, East Coast). Importantly, the fire is near an alpaca farm, and the owners report that all of the animals are safe.

As a Wednesday Treat: Lorde announced that she would be performing a surprise show in NYC’s Washington Square Park at 7pm, and people showed the fuck up. Because we all need this. So here’s some of the show.

Got problems? Yes, you do! Email your question for the column to mailbox@savage.love! by Dan Savage My wife and I are socially monogamous but have a DADT arrangement that applies if we’re not in our home city. While my wife would prefer that I divulge details to her, I don’t want to hear her details, so we defaulted to DADT based on my preferences. Because we aren’t out to friends about being open and I can’t share this with my wife, I don’t have anyone I can talk to about this, so I am writing to you. I just had an outstanding weekend getaway with a new friend. Nothing in particular was over the top about our itinerary — saunas and cold plunges followed by fancy meals — but time flew by while also seeming to stand still. The sex was WOW and our conversations about serious subjects were spiced with tongue-in-cheek teasing about this fantasy world we were playing in. She is poly and can…

[ Read more ]

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Marcus Harrison Green

Weather: Happy Earth Day! Today’s forecast: sunny with a high near 60. It’s perfect weather for pretending we’re not hurtling toward climate collapse. So get out there, hug a tree, recycle your plastic, and try not to think about how Exxon knew in the '70s.

Born Into Freedom, Dad Denied It: Dr. Noor Abdalla and political prisoner Mahmoud Khalil welcomed their first child yesterday. Khalil had requested a two-week furlough from his detention in Louisiana to be present for the birth. Per the cruelty of the Trump regime, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official named “Mellissa” denied Khalil’s request. 

Religious Freedom Means Never Having to Learn Anything: The culture war circus is back at the Supreme Court, where Justices are weighing whether books with LGBTQ+ characters in public schools trample on religious freedom. A school board in Montgomery County, Maryland okayed five storybooks to promote tolerance—scandalous!—but some parents claim that just seeing queer people in print violates their religious beliefs. They're arguing that a) parents should control what their kids learn and b) the Constitution guarantees them the right to not be mildly uncomfortable in a pluralistic society. With a bench stacked by Trump and dominated by justices molded in Catholic schools, odds are good that the Court will carve out some religious opt-out. 

Venezuela Fires Back at Bukele's Prisoner Swap Scheme: Venezuela’s attorney general, Tarek William Saab, went scorched earth on El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, branding him a “neo-Nazi” and “serial human rights violator” after Bukele proposed a prisoner swap with Nicolás Maduro. Bukele offered to trade 252 Venezuelans deported by Trump to his US-backed concentration camp, CECOT, for an equal number of political prisoners held in Venezuela—also naming out activists and journalists swept up in last year’s crackdowns. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” Bukele posted on X to Maduro. Saab hit back on state TV, calling the offer “cynical,” accusing Bukele of narcissism, and demanding details on who’s detained, their legal status, and medical conditions.

Trans Athlete Ban Fails, Barely: In yet another attempt to legislate bigotry under the guise of "protecting sports." The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA), the state’s high school sports governing body, almost passed a rule banning trans girls from girls' sports. The WIAA came just one vote shy of greenlighting this retrograde policy. And just for kicks, they also floated a separate “open” division—because what’s more inclusive than institutionalized exile? That gem of social engineering lost in a blowout, 13 votes for and 40 against. Let this be your latest reminder: trans bigotry isn’t just a DC export, it’s alive, well, and still trying to run drills in your local gym.

Now let's pass it to Hannah Murphy Winter for a blurb cameo:

Good news! On Friday evening, the US District Court for the Western District of Washington ruled that, whether you’re an insurance company or a healthcare provider, you can’t deny gender-affirming top surgery to trans kids and then turn around and provide it to cis kids. In a ruling against Premera Blue Cross, the judge found that it was a violation of the discrimination clause of the ACA. “The court determined in no uncertain terms that Premera Blue Cross’s policy categorically denying safe, evidence-based, and effective health care…is discriminatory and unlawful,” said Lambda Legal’s Omar Gonzalez-Pagan. “In fact, the court could not have been clearer. As it wrote in the ruling: ‘The Court need not choose between the divergent interpretations of the term 'sex' because, under either view, Premera’s medical policy facially discriminates on the basis of sex.” Someone tell Seattle Children’s that…

ICYMI: Despite the aforementioned good news, our Vivian McCall wrote a follow-up about Seattle Children's Hospital deciding to still yank gender-affirming surgery for patients under 19. The decision led to more than 550 health professionals and advocacy groups calling them out for breaking the law and promoting harmful, outdated views, while vowing to take legal action. But, in true "we don’t give a damn" fashion, the hospital's gone radio silent, leaving trans youth and their families twisting in the wind.

Seattle’s War on Tents (and People in Them): The Seattle Times reports that the City is absolutely crushing it—if “it” means shattering records for homeless encampment sweeps because nothing says progress like forcing people into a perpetual state of fear and displacement. But hey, as long as your Golden Retriever has a poop-free patch of grass in the park, who cares if people are overdosing and dying in the street? A little dehumanization is a small price to pay for vibes, right?

Ferguson Signs 35 Bills, Still No Wealth Tax: Gov. Bob Ferguson signed 35 bills into law yesterday, proving once again that bureaucracy can move fast, at least if it’s got caffeine and a legislative majority. From blocking out-of-state National Guardsmen from playing Weekend Warrior on our turf, to making sure pets aren’t left behind when the climate crisis comes knocking, to making sure your local casino is only moderately shady, it’s a buffet of, "Hey, that actually makes sense." Somewhere in there, they even found time to fight a burrowing shrimp, because in Washington, we fight fascism, crustaceans, and any attempt to pass a wealth tax with equal gusto.

Special Election, Today! Let’s keep it a buck, you probably thought that ballot that showed up in your mailbox this month was either junk mail or a coupon for a Domino’s 2-for-1 (what disgusting pizza, btw). And even if you did crack it open, chances are you had no idea we were voting today, let alone on what. But don’t worry, we’ve got your back: our SECB guide breaks down why you should vote NO on the fingerprint renewal measure, because handing over your biometric data to the government in this dystopian hellscape? Yeah, hard pass. Just make sure you drop your ballot in a box by 8 pm or slap a stamp on it before midnight, or it’s just another piece of paper lost to the surveillance state.

Our EIC in Action: If you’ve got a pulse and a brain, swing by Town Hall Seattle tonight at 7:30 pm. Our editor-in-chief will be moderating a conversation for Earth Day. You’ll hear from local leaders fighting the good fight on climate and equity, and meet some grassroots folks actually doing the work! 

And to mark the occasion, I’ll leave you with this wonderfully appropriate song by the late, great Marvin Gaye: 

A letter signed by at least 550 individuals, health care professionals, and advocacy groups is urging Seattle Children’s Hospital to restore access to gender-affirming surgical care to trans people under 19. by Vivian McCall

A letter signed by at least 550 individuals, health care professionals, and advocacy groups is urging Seattle Children’s Hospital to restore access to gender-affirming surgical care to trans people under 19.

The community letter, organized by the Seattle trans advocacy group Gender Justice League (GJL) and addressed to Children’s Board of Directors, says the hospital’s decision sends a “troubling” message to trans communities and may violate state law. The Washington Law Against Discrimination explicitly protects the rights of transgender people in places of public accommodation, which include hospitals.

Signed by the ACLU of Washington’s health policy program director, reproductive rights advocates like ProChoice Washington, LGBTQ groups like the Lavender Rights Project and Gender Justice League, as well as various health clinics, doctors, and labor unions, the letter calls on the hospital’s board of directors to immediately resume surgical care, educate the public on the scientific consensus that supports transgender care, and engage with workers, families, and advocates to collectively rally public support for its gender-affirming care program.

Telling a crowd of at least 100 protestors outside the hospital about the letter on Sunday afternoon, GJL Executive Director Danni Askini said the hospital’s leadership “has the research, they know the facts, they know that this care is medically necessary, that it’s safe, that it’s effective, that it supports young people and that it’s lifesaving.”

Askini told the crowd, who earlier had been line dancing to Chappell Roan and making postcards to send to hospital leadership, that GJL was talking to lawyers and looking for young people who’d been denied care at Children’s.

“We’re considering and are going to pursue any and every legal avenue that we can to hold Children’s accountable,” she said. “They are violating the Washington Law Against Discrimination, they’re harming our community and we’re not going to take that shit.”

This letter follows news, which The Stranger broke on Thursday, that the hospital had again stopped providing gender-affirming surgery for their patients under 19. A patient and his mother, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said a surgeon and his staff told the 17 year old that he couldn’t get top surgery at the hospital until he turned 19. Sources familiar with hospital policy confirmed other patients have been told the same thing.

The surgeon did not explain to our source why he had to wait, but the age cutoff seemed an obvious clue. Soon after taking office in January, President Donald Trump issued a sweeping executive order to withdraw all federal support for all trans care for patients 18 and younger. The order threatened major research institutions, like Children’s, that depend on millions in federal grants each year.

Trump’s order prompted the hospital to stop surgeries for the first time in early February, indefinitely postponing at least one 16-year-old patient’s top surgery just hours before he was expected in the OR. But that patient, who we called Ethan to protect his privacy, did end up having surgery in the end. His mother says the hospital rescheduled the procedure shortly after a federal judge in Seattle blocked Trump’s order in response to a lawsuit brought by Washington Attorney General Nick Brown with the Attorneys General of Oregon and Minnesota. Brown’s office confirmed the order is still blocked.

The hospital filed a declaration in support of that lawsuit. For that reason, the letter says, signatories held back from making public calls against Seattle Children’s.

“However, we are done holding back,” the letter continues. “Seattle Children’s has sown fear and panic within our communities. This action perpetuates the harmful narrative that medical care for transgender youth is not medically necessary, and it fuels harmful and misguided biases against transgender young people. It emboldens bigots and bullies who make these young people’s lives extremely difficult and endangers their mental health in our schools and communities.”

The letter references Maine, a state in an active standoff with the Trump administration over transgender athletes in school sports, as showing that standing up for trans youth is a “moral obligation.”

“We ask you, as a Board of Directors: Where will you draw the line in the years to come as these attacks persist and the targets ever evolve?” the letter reads. “Why did you sign up to serve young people in your community?  Which childrens’ health are you willing to sacrifice in the face of future moral panics and political pressure?”

It’s unclear why the hospital has drawn the line at surgery in the first place. Trump’s order does not distinguish between puberty blockers, hormones and surgery, it considers all three “mutilation,” so all three types of care would theoretically pose an equal threat to federal funding. But our source, who gets his hormones from Children’s, hasn’t lost his prescription, he says.

The hospital hasn’t said why it changed its mind. Six days after the first of our emails and phone calls, Children’s has not responded to The Stranger or made a public statement about this decision.

Sinners is now showing at several Seattle theaters, including SIFF Cinema Downtown, Regal Meridian, and IMAX Theaters at Pacific Science Center. by HR Smith

As a director and screenwriter, Ryan Coogler has built a career as an unparalleled interpreter of other people’s intellectual property. With Creed, he became the first person who isn’t Sylvester Stallone to write a film in the Rocky franchise. With Black Panther, he nailed the near-impossible assignment of adapting a thinly-drawn Marvel character conceit—created by two white guys, or one white guy, depending on which white guy you ask—and turned it into an iconic, globally-beloved blockbuster. With Wakanda Forever, Coogler gave us an epic work of underwater anti-colonialism, despite the death of the film’s star (Chadwick Boseman) and a global pandemic. 

Now, over a decade into making feature films, Sinners feels like the first time Coogler is going deep into his own archive—he’s said it’s based on family lore, told to him by his Uncle James, who moved from Mississippi to Oakland during the Great Migration.

It’s a slow burn campfire story where the Mississippi skies and cotton fields are so huge they had to be shot in IMAX, and the music gets so wild it dissolves the boundaries of space and time. 

The story starts out in the 1930s, when Sammie (Miles Caton), a sheltered preacher’s son receives a visit from his sharp-suited twin cousins Smoke and Stack (Michael B. Jordan and Michael B. Jordan). The cousins have returned from Chicago with a suspicious amount of money and a plan to turn the old cotton mill into a juke joint, starting that night. For the film’s first half they criss-cross the landscape, breezily assembling a dream team of musicians, cooks, and bouncers. 

Many of the actors Coogler cast are also musicians—most notably Caton, a wunderkind multi-instrumentalist who has never been in a film before. He has a soft, unfinished quality that feels all the more eerie when it disappears anytime he begins to play guitar. Caton is surrounded by actors at the top of their game: Not only Jordan, but Wunmi Mosaku as Annie, Jayme Lawson as Pearline, and Hailee Steinfeld as Mary—all radiant on camera and main characters in their own right. Everyone in this film is so good they’re shooting off sparks.

Before a writing teacher took him aside and told him that he should consider screenwriting, Coogler was a dedicated football player. In the likewise ego-heavy occupation of movie-making, he’s built a reputation of enthusiastic collaboration. When Stallone showed up at the Creed shoot every morning with pages of handwritten notes on how he thought the day’s filming should go, Coogler rolled with it. In a back-and-forth with Sinners cinematographer, Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Coogler constantly credits her for changing his mind on how the film should be shot.

In previews, the second half of Sinners looks like a straight-up vampire flick, but Coogler has an open beef with genre. “Genres in music are mostly based in racism,” Coogler explained, in a 2024 conversation with Jordan Peele. Grunge is blues, he continues. Don’t try to tell him otherwise. Sinners is not a genre film, and by the time the final credits roll (stick around for a post-scroll scene) the audience has been taken to church and seen a full-on blues concert, Irish folk dancing, and Gullah folklore. They'll also sit in on a vivid cunnilingus how-to and witness spaghetti-western cinematography applied to the Mississippi Delta.

Using vampires to smuggle your weird art movie into a theater is another time-worn cinematic tradition (Let the Right One In, Only Lovers Left Alive), but that doesn’t make this variation any less surprising. 

When the action comes, it moves fast. Not all of it makes sense, but it’s so large on the screen and beautifully shot that you go with it anyway. What starts out as a movie is, by the end, a haunting. 

A lot will be written about Sinners—about insiders and outsiders and Black joy and vampirism and what it all means. It’s a film about the past that feels specific to this particular time and place. Some of the greatest pleasures of this world are built with the imperfect people around us. Outside, something is waiting in the darkness. 

Sinners is now showing at several Seattle theaters, including SIFF Cinema Downtown, Regal Meridian, and IMAX Theaters at Pacific Science Center.

by EverOut Staff

We're here to save you from answering "IDK" when someone asks you what you're up to this week. Add buzzy events to your itinerary from Kylie Minogue: Tension Tour to Pedro the Lion 30th Anniversary Shows and from Swan Lake: State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine & Live Symphony Orchestra to Ziwe's America.

MONDAY LIVE MUSIC

Ichiko Aoba
The word "ethereal" tends to be overused when describing music. That said, Ichiko Aoba's music is actually ethereal. The Japanese singer-songwriter finds a sweet spot between folk, jazz, and classical music, employing swirling strings, ocean waves, windchimes, and delicate vocals to tell whimsical, and often fictional stories. She will support her new album Luminescent Creatures, which serves as a sequel to her critically acclaimed 2020 album Windswept Adan. AUDREY VANN
(Moore Theatre, Belltown)

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Nathalie Graham

Pope Francis Is Dead: Pope Francis, who was the first Latin American pontiff, is dead at 88. Francis moved the Catholic Church progressively—or, at least progressively for the Catholics. He believed in climate change, he made the church a somewhat more welcoming place for LGBTQ people, he opposed the death penalty, he condemned both the war in Gaza and Ukraine. Poetically, Francis died the morning after Easter. Tragically, one of the last people he met with before his death was Vice President JD Vance. I'd want to die after meeting him, too. 

SPD "Stop the Steal" Attendees Appeal to Supreme Court: Four of the Seattle Police Officers who attended Donald Trump's 2021 "Stop the Steal" rally, which later turned into the Jan. 6 insurrection, don't want their names revealed in public records. The officers maintain they did not participate in the insurrection. Earlier this year, the Washington State Supreme Court ruling which found "the officers failed to show that disclosing their names in public filings would violate their right to privacy," according to CBSNews. Unsatisfied with that, the officers, some of whom are still active within SPD, are banking on the Supreme Court to keep their political beliefs unassociated with their names. If they simply attended a peaceful rally, what are they worried about? 

Xoxo, Pete Hegseth: We might as well call Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Gossip Girl since he can't stop texting state secrets to anyone who will listen. The New York Times found that Hegseth sent details about forthcoming strikes in Yemen to another Signal group chat. This time, instead of a Signal chat with other members of the Trump cabinet and the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, Hegseth texted virtually the same deets to a private chat with his wife, brother, and personal lawyer. The chat also included about a dozen people from his personal and professional life. He called it "Defense | Team Huddle." Hegseth allegedly shared the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen. 

Once again, I was left to wonder: was Pete Hegseth signal chatting military attack plans to everyone but me??

Am I the one that’s insecure, or is it his communication practices that are insecure?

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— Leah Litman (@leahlitman.bsky.social) April 20, 2025 at 2:37 PM

The Weather: Today, it will be cloudy, but the sun could break through any gray and stick around. 

RIP Sen. Bill Ramos: Washington State Sen. Bill Ramos (D-Issaquah) died suddenly over the weekend during a trail run. He was 69. Ramos leaves behind two children and his wife, King County Councilmember Sarah Perry. "Billy is my East, my West, my North and South. I don’t know how I’ll do this without him," Perry wrote in a Facebook post. 

Democrats Keep $12 Billion Tax Package Alive: Washington state senators are approving pieces of a $12 billion tax package left and right. So far senators have passed "bills to expand the capital gains tax, increase tax rates on large corporations and big banks, and begin collecting sales tax on an array of services," reports the Washington State Standard. The big risk with all of this momentum is it's not clear if Gov. Bob Ferguson will sign any of these bills into law. Ferguson has been a big, frugal bummer in the face of a huge hole in our state budget. Let's get creative here, Bob! 

Hey, cut that out! An electric vehicle charger company, Virginia-based Electrify America LLC, is suing three King County men for allegedly pilfering charging cords and technology trade secrets at charging stations around Seattle. The men are accused of stealing and reselling metal stripped from the stations and developing a scheme to break into station cabinets to get the inside scoop on the technological goings-on in there. The company is seeking $500,000 from the men for allegedly violating Washington's criminal profiteering act.

What's your jet return policy? Thanks to new tariffs on US goods, a Boeing 737 MAX airplane intended for a Chinese airline returned back to Seattle like a pair of ill-fitting jeans. Since Trump put a 145 percent tariff on Chinese goods and China levied a reciprocal 125 percent tariff on US goods, purchasing a $55 million market value Boeing airplane could now financially destroy a Chinese airline. Before the tariffs went into effect, Boeing had 130 planes scheduled for delivery to Chinese companies. Will any of those orders still go through? Boeing and all of its pre-tariff financial woes probably really hope so!

[solemnly] "Boeing" is the sound made when the check for a jetliner bounces

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— Kelsey Atherton (@atherton.bsky.social) April 20, 2025 at 9:03 PM

Keep Being Polite to the Bots: Apparently, by saying "please" and "thank you" to ChatGPT bots costs OpenAI tens of millions of dollars, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Can we really kill the AI companies with kindness? Probably not, but shhh. 

Supreme Court Blocks Deportations: In a rare hurry, the Supreme Court issued a late night urgent order blocking the Trump administration from deporting a group of Venezuelan migrants under the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely-invoked 18th-century wartime law. The unsigned, one-paragraph-long order came through at 1 a.m. on Saturday. It expressed skepticism about whether the administration could make good on a stipulation from a previous, April 7 order which said "detainees were entitled to be notified if the government intended to deport them under the law within a reasonable time," reports the New York Times. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented because the Court's involvement, in their view, wasn't "necessary or appropriate." 

In Happy Wildlife News: Here's a Kenyan reporter getting interrupted by playful elephants. 

Kenyan #journalist Alvin Kaunda was reporting live from Nairobi when a curious baby #elephant, Kindani, decided to join the broadcast. The playful elephant stuck her trunk in Alvin's mouth, making for a hilarious moment! A joyful reminder of wildlife's charm and the work of the Sheldrick Trust!

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— Emily Carter (@emilycurates.bsky.social) April 20, 2025 at 10:59 AM

In Horrible Wildlife News: Gray whales are dying by the thousands thanks to melting arctic ice. Global warming has made it almost impossible for gray whales to get enough sustenance; their food webs are disrupted. Gray whales are starving. Their population has declined by 40 percent across the last decade. 

Israel Says "Oops": Israel has admitted wrongdoing in the killings of 15 rescue workers in Gaza last month. After making excuses for killing emergency responders and then burying them in a sandy mass grave, Israel admitted to several "professional failures" and a breach of orders in a report from an internal investigation into the matter. Israel has fired one deputy commander responsible for the order to kill the aid workers and has censured another. That is the extent of the punishment for what really looks like a cut and dry war crime. The Palestine Red Crescent called the Israeli report "full of lies." 

Kristi Noem's Purse Nabbed at DC Restaurant: A thief nabbed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's purse while she was eating dinner. They made off with the purse and all of its contents which included "Noem’s driver’s license, medication, apartment keys, passport, DHS access badge, makeup bag, blank checks, and about $3,000 in cash."

Breeding Kink: The White House is considering a slew of new policies to incentivize Americans to reproduce more and reverse the declining birthrate. Some of the ideas include giving every mother $5,000 after giving birth to a baby, reserving 30 percent of scholarships in the prestigious Fulbright program to people who are married or who have kids, and bestowing a "National Medal of Motherhood" award to mothers with six or more kids. Trump pledged last month to be the "fertilization president." There is something deeply stomach-churning about all of this. It's an extension of the administration's focus on restoring "the American family." Of course, the American family to them is a traditional one between men and women and set within typical gender roles. 

Music for your Monday: It just felt fitting. Not sure why.