April 16th, Tuesday, Seattle, WA: Ten lesbian, gay, bisexual, trangender and queer (LGBTQ) organizations have banded together to urge the Space Needle Corporation to fly the Rainbow flag, annually, during the month of Pride and to settle a fair contract soon that includes living wages, continued benefits, job security and strong anti-discrimination language for sexual orientation and gender identity. The sponsoring organizations are: LGBTQ Allyship, PrideFest, Entre Hermanos, Ingersoll Gender Center, The NW LGBT Senior Care Providers Network, Pride At Work AFL-CIO, Social Outreach Seattle, The Seattle Lesbian, Trans Lives Matter and Gender Justice League representing tens of thousands of LGBTQ and allied individuals. The Seattle LGBT Commission sent letters to the Seattle City Council and Mayor McGinn recommending the Mayor and City Council support these two requests. The Space Needle Corporation has not yet agreed to either request.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) persons make up a significant percentage of the hospitality industry workforce in the greater Seattle area. Workers at the Space Needle have gone for two years without a contract and are currently seeking a contract that guarantees fair working conditions, including living wages, health care benefits, and job security. LGBTQ communities in Seattle and around the country experience higher rates of being uninsured and unemployed than the national average. Advocating for living wages and access to affordable health care in the hospitality industry directly impacts LGBTQ communities.
The Space Needle Corporation flew the flag in 2010. In 2011, they flew the flag after compelling the LGBTQ community to raise $50,000 for 4 LGBTQ organizations. In 2012, during the drive for marriage equality, the Space Needle refused to fly the Rainbow flag.
Seattle has the second largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in the country. LGBTQ individuals have enjoyed civil rights in Seattle since the 1970‘s and recently won marriage equality. It is time that the symbol of Seattle reflects the values of its citizens by flying the Rainbow Flag yearly during Pride month, and show fairness to the workers underneath the flag by committing to a fair union contract that upholds their human dignity in all its forms.
LGBTQ Allyship is a social and economic organization in the Puget Sound area. We work on access to affordable health care, economic justice and eliminating youth homelessness in the LGBTQ community through education, advocacy, research and community organizing. For more information go to LGBTQAllyship.org.
Ingersoll Gender Center is delighted to present Jennifer Finney Boylan, best selling author for an intimate reading from her new memoir of parenting-while-trans: Stuck in the Middle With You. 
Seattle, WA February 6, 2013 -- Ingersoll Gender Center invites you to the Grand Opening of its new space at 517 East Pike Street on Capitol Hill. The Open House will be from 5PM to 9PM, Thursday, March 14. The space houses Ingersoll’s offices and meeting space for new programming. The new Ingersoll Space is downstairs from Kaladi Brothers Coffee, the LGBT library and adjacent to Gay City Clinic offices.
Starting in early 2013, Ingersoll Gender Center will begin a new open source technology training project as a component of the STEEP Program (Seattle Trans Economic Empowerment Project). The project is called Team.Hack and it is the first program to use open source software and hardware as a training platform for job and economic skill for the trans and queer communities.