Each week on The Newsfeed, host Paris Jackson and a team of veteran journalists dive deep into one topic and provide impactful reporting, interviews and community insights from sources you can trust. Each day this week, this post will be updated with a new story from the team.
Advocates say need for support for trans refugees in Seattle is a crisis
By Jaelynn Grisso
In 2025 alone, more than 600 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced throughout the country. That's led to an influx of trans people fleeing their home states for Washington and other blue states. Many advocates say it's a crisis, including Seattle's LGBTQ Commission which recently asked the mayor to declare a state of emergency.
Elle Cree is a trans woman who moved to Seattle because she was notified her gender-affirming surgeries were cancelled after the presidential election.
“They canceled everything,” Cree said. “They said, ‘We are no longer going to honor that,’ and they cited the 2024 elections in that conversation. They said, ‘We no longer feel that the nation is going in a direction that allows for these kind of things to take place.’”
It was at that point, Cree says, that she made the decision to end her life. That is, until she received a call from local organization Traction, which works to relocate trans folks along with the Kawaguchi O’Connor Initiative.
“One thing that I've shared many times before is how desperate I was on that day,” she said. “If the phone call hadn't come in from Traction, I don't know where I would have been. I was truly at the end. I had I had decided that I didn't need to continue, and so it was very, very fortunate that I had that phone call that day.”
Cree is one of many trans people fleeing hostile environments and moving to places like Seattle. Estimates put the number of trans refugees nationwide near 400,000, based on calculations from a 2025 survey conducted by the Movement Advancement Project.
The increased influx led Seattle LGBTQ Commission, which advises the city on matters related to the queer and trans community, to request the mayor declare a state of emergency.
“Very quickly, we started to have community partners come to us, to our commission meetings, to our community meetings, and tell us that they were seeing a very large increase in clients, trans clients, who were coming here and seeking refuge and asylum,” said Kody Allen, co-chair of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission.
Chris Curia, also a co-chair of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission, said they estimate thousands of trans folks are moving to Washington – and likely Seattle – based on national estimates.
Among those community partners is Gender Justice League, which provides resources to gender nonconforming individuals.
“With the influx is the stark reality is that, you know, as much as a thing exists, doesn't necessarily mean it will happen,” said Meridith Matthews, community safety program director for Gender Justice League. “Yes, we might have public housing, but how long is the wait list? Or, yes, you know, we may have shelter, but are the shelters accessible for trans people?”
Both Cree and Matthews named housing as one of the top concerns for new trans folks coming to the city, but Cree also mentioned facing barriers like employment discrimination.
Commissioner Allen said the state of emergency could help provide more funding to community organizations, some of which have said they’re at risk of closing altogether if they don’t get more support.
“Without the homeless shelters and queer organizations that are doing the work that they're currently doing - and that they are struggling to continue to do - this is going to become much more of a crisis,” Allen said. “Without extra funding, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that that lives are on the line here.”
Many of those Cascade PBS spoke with made it clear that although Seattle is a safer place for trans folks, that doesn’t mean it is safe entirely. In May, a trans person from Santa Fe named Juniper Blessing was killed in the University district.
Cree understands both the safety and the threats within Seattle well. For her, declaring a state of emergency would only validate what already exists. She and other volunteers with the Stone Soup Crew serve hot food to anyone who needs it in Cal Anderson every week.
“The declaration of an emergency, to me, what it is, is validity,” Cree said. “It's saying what is obvious. It's saying the quiet parts out loud. There is an emergency going on, just come out here on Wednesday night and see. People are starving. People have no homes. People have no jobs. This is the reality. So whether the emergency is actually declared, all's its doing is validating what we already have going on.”
Cree added that the help she received is only possible with support.
“I'm lucky I have a community to help support me, but at the end of the day, they'll still need to be paid,” she said. “We still need health care. We still need jobs. I still need a place to live. It's very important. So, it is this wonderful city of opportunity and at the same time, it's a wonderful city of barriers. And these barriers need to be removed. And we do need help. We need help to survive”
Seattle drag queen uses show to reinvest in queer community
By Jaelynn Grisso, story published 06/04/2026
During a Friday night in May, with Pride month on its heels, the Clock-Out Lounge is packed; standing room only. Tonight’s show is sold out, which has become the norm for local drag show TUSH.
“TUSH is a drag burlesque comedy, music, queer variety show here that's been running eight years, almost, at the Clock-Out Lounge on Beacon Hill,” the show’s founder and local drag queen Betty Wetter said.
She said she wants to use the show to support queer folks.
“I kind of love when people complain that they couldn't get tickets to the show,” she said with a laugh. “Because it just means that things are going well and people are, really latching on to the message.”
That growth has meant room for more opportunities, such as the Queer Sick Pay Fund, now in its second year. She and a few friends created the fund to help queer performers stay afloat.
“When we came back from lockdown, performers were constantly getting sick,” she said. “I lived in and still live in great fear of getting sick and perhaps not being able to perform again or not be able to perform for a while. That would take away my livelihood, that would take away my ability to afford groceries and rent.”
She added that while Washington state has plans for employed people, many performers are independent contractors and don't qualify for other sick pay.
In the first year, they raised $100,000 for the fund and gave out half. They’ve also created grants for gender-affirming care.
“I'm hoping to really create a sustainable future for the artists who come on to our stage, because often in this gig economy that we exist and people are performing at a loss financially,” Betty Wetter said. “And I'd like to see that flip around. I'd like to see these people thriving.”
50 years of vital work and advocacy at the Seattle Gay News
By Venice Buhain, story published 06/04/2026
In 1974, the Seattle Gay News was founded amidst the gay rights movements of the 1970s. It’s been a lifeline through the 1980s, 1990s, and beyond. Almost 40 years of that was under legendary publisher George Bakan, who ran the paper from 1983 until his death in 2020.
Renee Raketty has been publisher of the Seattle Gay News since 2024, after having been a writer and a managing editor at the paper. Raketty remembers when it was the only LGBTQ+ resource in the phone book for many people.
“It was how you found out about events. It's how you found your partner. It's how you found open the LGBTQ-welcoming businesses. And then, of course, we also educated our community about things that were happening. And we mobilized people. We got our community mobilized and active, when we were facing a threat,” Raketty said.
Through the years the paper has chronicled and championed changes in LGBTQ+ rights, from pushing back against anti-gay laws and policies affecting Seattle in the 1970s, to covering marriage equality in the 2000s, to covering issues that the community faces today, like hate crimes and the plight of trans refugees from other states.
In the 1980s, during the HIV/AIDS crisis, the Seattle Gay News helped mobilize mutual aid for people who were ill and ran obituaries of those who died. At a recent 50th anniversary retrospective, some people told Raketty that the paper was how they found out family members had died of AIDS.
“Back then, it was something a lot of families were silent about,” Raketty said.
The paper, which still comes out in print monthly, has adapted with the times, with a website and social media, but still honors its roots.
“[It’s] just as vital today as it was back then. You know, like, this is a time in our history where our community facing -- especially trans people are facing -- the possibility of extinction from this administration,” Raketty said.
But print costs have been rising, and advertising has been slowing. Major companies have cut back on spending on causes that support diversity, and smaller neighborhood businesses like bars and restaurants face their own financial struggles. To try to help keep the work going, te paper has launched a fundraising campaign on Patreon.
“If it wasn’t for us, those stories would never have been told, and those bills would never have been passed. Our community would not be where it’s at today which – luckily for us – we're probably one of the better places in the entire country,” Raketty said.
Seattle Pride pivots as corporate sponsors pull back
By Lizz Giordano, story published 06/02/2026
Seattle Pride, the host of the city’s annual Pride Parade each June, is shifting how it raises money as corporate sponsorship continues to shrink.
According to Executive Director Patti Hearn, corporate sponsorship revenue for the parade dropped during the pandemic, then again last year. Historically, the organization relied heavily on corporations for funding.
“We realized pretty early last year that we had to fill in gaps, and that we weren't going to hit our usual corporate sponsorship number. We were already doing a lot of like, really healthy organizational work around diversifying revenue, so that all made sense, but it did galvanize a little bit to go a little bit faster and a little bit harder on some of the things.”
Hearn said the non-profit received $200,000 in grant funding last year. That, plus an increase in donations from individuals, are helping fill the shortfall. Hearn said the average gift from an individual is $120.
The money covers the costs to shut down streets for the 1.7-mile parade route and erect several stages and a bandstand.
Last year, the Trump administration released an executive order targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, which Hearn believes impacted corporate fundraising.
“I think that has that panic has subsided some, but what has replaced it is companies going, "Oh, we don't actually have to, like, maybe it's not a benefit to us to support the visibly queer organizations, or maybe those were never our values, and we were only doing it because we thought we needed to do what everybody else was doing, you know. So, it's hard to say, it's hard to say if they always felt that way and were doing it because they were on the bandwagon, or now that they're responding to something in the administration.”
The Pride Parade starts at 11am on June 28. The route runs along Fourth Avenue from Westlake Avenue to the Seattle Center.
Individuals can donate at the organization's website.
LGBTQ+ youth find support at Lambert House in Seattle
By Paris Jackson, story published 06/01/2026
June is Pride Month. This week we’re exploring many facets of the LGBTQ+ community, and the challenges and triumphs of individuals and families.
One agency in Seattle, the Lambert House, continues to be a safe space for hundreds of LGBTQ+ youth from ages 10 through 22.
In recent years, anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation across the country has garnered a lot of media and federal administration attention.
The Lambert House’s executive director says Seattle is relatively protected, and historically a very supportive environment.
“Nevertheless, we had eight anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in the Washington state legislature. None of them were passed into law. But youth that are growing up here are aware that there are people, including local leaders, elected officials, who want to see them disappear, who want to see them invisible, who want them not to exist. So that's a very stressful environment in which to be growing up,” said, Ken Shulman, Lambert House LGBTQ Youth Center Executive Director.
Shulman says he’s aware of families moving to Washington state from red states to better protect their trans children. There is significant emphasis for youth who walk through the doors of The Lambert House to feel safe.
“In terms of hope, what Lambert has provides them is a peer group that's large; 723 youth last year in our programs. So you're going to find a friend if you're looking for a friend and often more than one, maybe a group of friends that you become part of, and that decreases the likelihood that they're going to turn to alcohol or other drugs as a coping mechanism for the stress of being in this minority. It decreases their depression and their sense of loneliness, their sense of hopelessness, their sense of never being loved,” Shulman said.
Shulman says more than 100 volunteers, most of whom are LGBTQ+ or allies, span the spectrum of backgrounds, education, income and careers. He says they are important role models for the youth they serve.
