After beloved longtime edor Gee Bakan died last year, his dghter, Angela Crag, hered the Seattle Gay News and hired some new people. The publitn is movg forward, strivg to...
Contents:
- JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
- THE CLOCK IS TICKG FOR SEATTLE GAY NEWS
- SEATTLE GAY NEWS CHARTS A PATH TO THE FUTURE AFTER ATH OF LONGTIME EDOR GEE BAKAN
- SEATTLE GAY NEWS ARCHIV S PAST AND LOOKS TO THE FUTURE
JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
Like many muny newspapers, the Seattle Gay News is grapplg wh generatnal transn and an uncerta future. It will close if a buyer isn't found. * gay newspaper seattle *
Gays on Broadway: A ont-row seat to Queer history NYC theater. Michael Sam beme the first openly gay player to be drafted when the then-St. The timg uld be better, wh Seattle celebratg Pri Month and a vic new culture war targetg transgenr the Seattle Gay News, a csadg weekly newspaper, is losg s lear and headg for closure at year is, unls a new owner is found to rry on nearly 50 years of newspaperg and advocy by a publitn lnched amid the post-Stonewall ph for gay rights the early n’t flt the current publisher, Angela Crag, for wantg to move hered the paper unexpectedly when her father, legendary Capol Hill activist and publisher Gee Bakan, died Crag, a mother of three livg Tri-Ci, was as if Bakan left her a half-sunk old boat.
“Gay media jt like a lot of muny media have been gog through stggl over the last few years. Almost all of the legacy gay media has done some kd of transformatn to survive or has fold, ” said Tracy Baim, owner of Chigo LGBTQ newspaper Wdy Cy, also former publisher of the Chigo Rear, eded the 2012 book, “Gay Prs, Gay Power: The Growth of LGBT Communy Newspapers Ameri.
”Baim said most gay papers are ee prt and onle, supported predomantly by advertisg. Baim ma such a nversn at the Chigo Rear but said she don’t believe ’s the right mol for most publitns niche markets, like the gay prs, the Black prs and Lato prs. “It would be a great loss to lose the Seattle Gay News, ” Baim said.
THE CLOCK IS TICKG FOR SEATTLE GAY NEWS
”Although the paper was an early, treasured signpost for the regn’s gay muny and played an pecially important role durg the AIDS crisis and fight for marriage equaly, s bs stggled as much or more than the overall news before prt media began tumblg the 2000s, Seattle Gay News faced new petn om The Stranger, another weekly centered on Capol Hill. When Gee Bakan, the edor and publisher of Seattle Gay News sce 1982, died June 2020, thoands of people the LGBTQ+ muny Seattle grieved.
Bakan, known as “the Governor of Capol Hill, ” ma the weekly newspaper Seattle’s leadg source of rmatn about the AIDS epimic the 1980s durg a time when many news sourc blamed gay people for the disease they lled “gay ncer. ” He also created a place where Seattle’s LGBTQ+ muny uld feel a sense of solidary when many stat still had laws place agast gay sex. (LGBTQ+ stands for lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer/qutng, wh the + notg everythg along the genr and sexualy spectm.
)“Gee and the SGN documented and wnsed our llective stggl and acknowledged our existence and humany at a time that few wanted to see , ” says Fred Swanson, the executive director of Gay Cy, the long-standg Seattle LGBTQ+ rource center. A voted activist and lear the LGBTQ+ muny, Bakan over the s grew the Seattle Gay News om a small muny newsletter to a newspaper wh a weekly circulatn as high as 13, 500.
SEATTLE GAY NEWS CHARTS A PATH TO THE FUTURE AFTER ATH OF LONGTIME EDOR GEE BAKAN
And though the publitn vered the LGBTQ+ muny better than any other publitn Seattle, Bakan’s staff was maly gay, whe men, says Renee Raketty, a transgenr woman who was the managg edor of the publitn om 2005 to 2007.
The bs is also still reverg om the fancial issu ed by the panmic and Bakan’s health problems by updatg s webse and social media prence, and by creasg s young rearship, says Crag, the new publisher and owner of Seattle Gay News. Last December, they joed Seattle Gay News as a reporter.
SEATTLE GAY NEWS ARCHIV S PAST AND LOOKS TO THE FUTURE
But they also say SGN wasn’t always reprentative of the full breadth of the LGBTQ+ muny Seattle, and their foc is now on “the voic that have been stepped on by the cisgenr, whe, gay muny.
” Crag is nsirg Eichenbm for the permanent edor--chief role at Seattle Gay News but says she didn’t want to give a posn so fed by her father to anyone so soon after his ath. Gay Cy celebrat over 25 years of servg Seattle’s LGBTQ+ muny‘Gmpy Santa’ and ‘Governor of Capol Hill’: Gee Bakan, longtime edor of the Seattle Gay News, di.
Eichenbm and Crag recently rebrand the publitn om “Seattle Gay News” to “SGN” and add a rabow sign next to the masthead to symbolize s cln of all segments of the LGBTQ+ muny. She says SGN spired her to start a gay-straight alliance at her high school Bellevue.