Seattle’s LGBTQ community members say they hope that this Friday’s World Cup “Pride Match” between Egypt and Iran, two countries where homosexuality is criminalized, can be an opportunity to change minds.
Seattle, WA
What's new Seattle Kraken coach's insight on Shane Wright?
If anything jumps out about new Seattle Kraken head coach Dan Bylsma, it’s where he’s coming from.
After whirlwind stretch, new Kraken coach Bylsma settles in
Bylsma spent the past two seasons coaching the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the Kraken’s affiliate in the American Hockey League, and he had impressive success with the group of Kraken prospects, leading the Firebirds to back-to-back AHL Western Conference championships and trips to the Calder Cup Finals.
Perhaps the most talented player on those teams was Shane Wright, a center who the Kraken picked No. 4 overall in the 2022 NHL Draft and is seen as a key piece of Seattle’s future. Naturally, Bylsma has a unique insight on Wright due to the experience he has already having coached him before being promoted to the organization’s top job.
Bylsma shared that insight when he joined Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy on Thursday, and he made sure to point out that while Wright came to the Kraken with high expectations, he was still only 18 years old when he made his NHL debut in October 2022.
“I think it gets lost a little bit, we’re drafting 18 year old kids, young men,” Bylsma told Michael Bumpus and guest host Curtis Rogers, “and there’s a lot of development and a lot of process that has to go through for the player to get to be where he’s at his best. I think the first year (for Wright) we saw a lot of signs of that. The expectations of the draft and going forth, and then coming to camp, you got to remember he (was) just 18 years old. You’ve got to look back to when you were 18 years old and see where you were at at that time, both physically and mentally.”
Bumpus, a former NFL wide receiver, could relate to Bylsma’s point.
“I thought about me at 18 and I laughed at myself, thinking if I were 18 trying to play in the NFL in that locker room, I would not last,” Bumpus replied. “How do they do it in hockey?”
Bylsma, who coached the Pittsburgh Penguins to a Stanley Cup title in 2009 and played nine seasons in the NHL, mentioned that leadership not just during Wright’s stints in Seattle but also at Coachella Valley have been important.
“Well, I think that’s the the great thing about hockey – even though we’re doing it at 18 years old, you usually have a bunch of seasoned veterans to show you the way, to lead the way, and we certainly have that in Seattle,” Bylsma said. “But … it’s just a difficult thing to do. I was drafted too but certainly wasn’t at the level of Shane Wright, and to step into an NHL locker room when you’re 18 years old and all the eyes on you, all the expectations on you, it’s a difficult thing. I think the good thing for Shane is he just got a chance to turn pro, be a pro every day, work at being a pro. He got to do it under some great leadership we had in Coachella with Max McCormick, Andrew Poturalski (leading) the way in helping Shane realize what it what it takes to be a pro.”
So what stood out about Wright, who is now 20, to Bylsma with the Firebirds?
“The good thing the last year, I’ve just got to see Shane come to work every day and put in the time, put in the effort, and you can just continually see the growth in him as a person and him as a player,” he said. “I think you guys got to see a little bit of it when he came up (to rejoin the Kraken this April) in those six games and scored some goals. I thought that was great for him to see the maturation process in his game throughout the whole year and get some results when he came up and played.”
SHANE WRIGHT AGAIN 🤩
His second of the night and third since being called up! pic.twitter.com/NfGwSFfdfB
— NHL (@NHL) April 6, 2024
Listen to the full Bump and Stacy conversation with new Seattle Kraken head coach Dan Bylsma in the podcast at this link or in the player near the top of this post.
More on the Seattle Kraken
• Seattle Kraken, Eeli Tolvanen agree to two-year deal
• History made as Kraken hire Jessica Campbell as assistant coach
• Seattle Kraken make trade to follow up big first day in free agency
• 2024 NHL Draft Recap: Every pick the Seattle Kraken made
• Morosi: Why Bylsma is ‘best possible’ coach for Seattle Kraken
SEATTLE — Seattle police are investigating a shooting that left a 17-year-old boy injured early Thursday morning in the High Point neighborhood.
At about 12:48 a.m., dispatchers received multiple reports of rapid gunfire near Sylvan Way Southwest and Southwest Morgan Street.
Officers arrived and found a 17-year-old boy suffering from a gunshot wound to the hip area. Medics transported the teen to Harborview Medical Center in serious but stable condition.
Before officers located the victim, they found a car that had crashed and become disabled near Sylvan Way Southwest and Delridge Way Southwest. Police said multiple suspects were seen running from the vehicle through a nearby Home Depot parking lot.
Officers cordoned off the area and searched for the suspects with assistance from the K-9 Unit, but were unable to locate them. Police recovered the vehicle and impounded it for processing.
During the incident, gunfire struck at least three vehicles and two buildings. No other injuries were reported.
Officers processed multiple nearby scenes and recovered evidence before clearing the area. Detectives with the Gun Violence Reduction Unit will lead the investigation.
Seattle, WA
Council eyes street barricades in fight against violence, sex trafficking in north Seattle
SEATTLE — The Seattle City Council is expected to vote next week on a plan that would give the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) the authority to close off street access for public safety reasons.
The proposal comes after months of outcry from residents in north Seattle who say sex traffickers and sex buyers are looping through the streets surrounding Aurora Avenue North.
The street-closure proposal passed the council’s Public Safety Committee on Tuesday and is expected to be voted on by the full council next week.
“I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say the crime has gotten much worse, much more violent, and much more predator,” said District 5 councilmember Debora Juarez. “I think that we do have the authority to shut down a street for bullets flying and endangering the lives of those who live there.”
Frustrated neighbors have installed their own homemade barricades after a spate of gun violence between sex traffickers in May.
RELATED | SDOT removes street barricades near Aurora Ave; neighbors doubtful of temporary measures
Councilmember Bob Kettle says street closures will help tamp down sex buying in certain areas, but he emphasizes it must be accompanied by an increase in outreach and enforcement.
“We have to have a sustained effort,” Kettle told KOMO News. “My concern is for every action, there’s a reaction. We need to take this flex and then really attack it … because if we do just a bit and our attention wanders, we could have this conversation three months from now and we’re talking about the same thing.”
A 15-year-old boy was shot near 95th Street and Aurora Avenue North around 10:45 p.m. last night. The teen initially claimed he had been shot while walking down the street, but investigators now say he was shot by a passenger in his car.
RELATED | Seattle police say ‘drive-by’ on Aurora Ave. was actually passenger shooting teen driver
Kettle credited the city’s Real Time Crime Center cameras with helping investigators quickly piece together the events of the shooting.
“Just as important to finding out what happened, the cameras help police determine what did not happen,” Kettle said.
According to Seattle police data, reports of shootings and shots fired in the north precinct area are at their lowest levels since 2021.
Through the end of May, there were 48 total reports of shootings or shots fired, with one fatal shooting and seven nonfatal injury shootings.
That’s down from 63 total reports of shootings and shots fired – one fatal and seven injuries – in 2025; and 64 shootings or shots fired reports – one fatal and 17 injuries – in 2024.
At Tuesday’s committee meeting, councilmembers pointed out residents are calling for a new police precinct to be built on Aurora Avenue.
Ten years ago, a new North Precinct building was slated to be built at 130th Avenue and Aurora Avenue North to replace the existing precinct building, which was decades old and did not have enough space for the department’s needs.
Led by former councilmember Kshama Sawant, the “Block the Bunker” movement successfully got the North Precinct replacement project killed in city council.
Kettle said the city’s current financial issues make it essentially impossible to bring back a project similar to the one the previous council defeated.
“We have to connect the dots back,” Kettle said. “If we want to know why we are where we are today, we have to look at decisions made over the last two councils.”
Seattle, WA
Iran and Egypt to play in Seattle ‘Pride Match’ despite earlier complaints | The Jerusalem Post
Seattle revels in its reputation as a welcoming place and Pride flags are visible all over the city, all year round. Its June Pride weekend is one of the biggest in the United States.
So, ahead of December’s World Cup draw, it was only natural that local organizers designated the June 26 match to be held in the city as a “Pride Match.”
Then the draw happened — and the two teams scheduled to play the game were Egypt and Iran.
Egypt’s Football Association urged global soccer governing body FIFA to prevent any Pride-related activities, arguing such events clashed with the Muslim-majority country’s cultural and religious values. The governing body in Iran, where same-sex relations can carry the death penalty, filed an objection with FIFA.
Some in Seattle have doubts over the teams in the ‘Pride Match’
But in Seattle, there is no question that the Pride Match will go ahead as planned.
“The World Cup is going to come and go in three weeks,” Hedda McLendon, from Seattle’s local World Cup organizing committee, told Reuters. “The Pride celebration … has happened on this weekend for 50-plus years.
“It is going to happen this weekend, it is going to happen long after the World Cup.”
Some in the city’s LGBTQ community had mixed feelings given the participants, said Jon Cairns, 49, manager of local LGBTQ+ club Kremwerk.
Cairns, however, said his own view was that it provided a platform to promote acceptance that only the world’s biggest sporting event could offer.
“My reaction is let’s have them,” he told Reuters. “International sports is one of the biggest brokers historically of social change and individual rights and freedoms worldwide, including in the U.S.”
He cited black U.S. sprinter Jesse Owens’ four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Nazi Germany and Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ raised-fist protest in 1968 as moments where “only international sports could reach that big of an audience.”
“They’re not going to turn off the World Cup on state television in Iran or Egypt to block out a Pride flag in the audience,” Cairns said.
The Pride Match is “a host city initiative” and separate of FIFA, a spokesperson for soccer’s governing body told Reuters.
Seattle’s LGBTQ community sees an opportunity
Egypt and Iran’s involvement in the Pride Match is not the first time the World Cup has grappled with stark differences in attitudes between hosts and visitors.
In 2022 World Cup host Qatar, the emir said visitors should “respect our culture” when asked about gay people attending the tournament.
FIFA threatened yellow cards for captains wearing the “OneLove” armband, citing its rules against political slogans. Teams including England and the Netherlands that had been planning to wear the armbands to protest Qatar’s laws against same-sex relationships abandoned the plan.
For Ryan Webster, a 40-year-old lifestyle manager who was at Kremwerk the weekend before Pride, Seattle’s “Pride Match” was an opportunity to show solidarity with people in countries where their sexuality was outlawed.
“I’m choosing to believe that this is our moment to allow the members of the LGBTQ community that come from those countries to have the opportunity to celebrate themselves in totality that they might not have otherwise,” he said outside the club, which will host a watch party for Friday’s game.
Inside, ‘Venus Fengz’ lip-synced to Cher’s “Believe” before introducing fellow drag performers to the stage, clapped and cheered by a raucous crowd.
Fengz, who only wanted to provide their stage name, said Pride coinciding with the World Cup would bring increased visibility, anticipating perhaps some new audience members.
“I think it’s always great for us to be able to share space and share places with people who don’t have the same experiences as us,” they told Reuters.
“Sometimes you just have to be the bigger person and show grace where you can and know that everyone is a human learning (from) different experiences, but also it can get hard — because you’re on the shorter end of the stick, always trying to have to explain yourself around people who don’t grow up with the same worldview.”
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