History of the LGBT community in Seattle
Encyclopedia
History of the LGBT community in Seattle It was the 1960s when there was an increasing number of gay and lesbians drawn to the city. Which was seen as providing an acceptable environment. On 19 November 1958 an injunction instructed the city police not to question customers of gay bars unless there was a "good cause" in connection with an actual investigation.
In 1967 University of Washington
's Professor Nick Heer founded the Dorian Society which was the first group in Seattle to support gay rights and which published a newsletter
about current issues and events in the gay community. The name was a reference to the Doric Hellenic warriors of Ancient Greece
who considered homosexuality
glamorous and the society was modelled on New Zealand's Dorian Society
. Their mission was to create a more respectable image of the Seattle homosexual. They also wanted the reform the Seattle sodomy
laws. In response to their efforts a Seattle Times headline stated on September 21, 1966, Tolerant Reputation: Seattle homosexual problem reported to be 'out of hand. This article stated the Seattle police wanted to suppress the LBGT community, partially by removing liquor licenses at gay bars. In May 1967 the The Daily of the University of Washington
did a series on the gay community, which for the first time represented the community in a more positive light. Much of this positivity had to with vigilant PR and work of the Dorian Society.
Seattle has quite a vibrant LGBT community. The Capitol Hill neighborhood in particular is considered by many to a bit of a "center of gay life" in Seattle, with gay-friendly businesses and nightlife, and a resource centers. Seattle has the second largest community
in the United States
after San Francisco with 12.9% of its city identifing as LGBT.
, particularly in Capitol Hill (the center of LGBT life in the city) and in open public spaces such as Volunteer Park. In one case, in January 2009, eleven gay bars and clubs in Seattle were sent letters threatening ricin
attacks.
was the most popular homosexual Seattle cabaret in the 1940s and 1950s. Regular vaudeville and drag shows were held there with talented singers dressed in drag. Intriguingly this became a hotspot in the post war period, even with service-persons. In the 1960s the military made most gay establishments in Seattle off-limits. Later, in the 1970s vaudeville became something a little different. Seattle began the trend of courts.
The 70s introduced new gay Seattle hotspots such as Mocambo, the Golden Horseshoe and the Golden Crown.
for the community to meet and strategize, which Gary Atkins claims may be likened to the African-Americans who used churches to organize during the civil rights movement. During the 1950s, when anti-sodomy laws were still in effect in the United States, gay bars, clubs and bathhouses became scrutinized. Owners of such establishments would frequently bribe law enforcement to ensure their survival as well as prevent harassment of their mostly gay clientele and escape legal consequences themselves. Seattle city officials believed that the city was not doing enough to enforce laws discriminating against homosexuality and feared that eventually it would be as openly acceptable as in cities such as San Francisco. As a result of the political upheaval regarding Seattle gay bars, the Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board sent fourteen gay establishments letters threatening to bar them from military personnel. In 1966, the Seattle police chief suggested restrictions on gay bars such as withholding their liquor licenses. The current mayor, Dorm Braman, also instructed the police to “discourage the inflow” of homosexuals to Seattle.
Today, sodomy laws have been repealed by the Supreme Court, and Seattle has generally become more affirming of LGBT people. More recently, gay bars and clubs have enjoyed a central prominence for community organizing. For example, in 1987 Life Long AIDS Alliance created the "Jars in Bars" program that allows community volunteers to engage in education outreach regarding AIDS and enables patrons of Capitol Hill bars to donate to their cause. The Seattle mayor and other city officials are also much more receptive to the gay community. Mayor Greg Nickles considers the January 2009 ricin threats a very serious problem.
was becoming more “normalized” and Gonorrhea
, Syphilis
and Chlamydia cases all rose. A combination of effectiveness in anti-retroviral therapies and increase in use of intravenous drugs influenced a rise in STIs. The “watershed moment” occurred in 2003 when King County Public Health released a report saying that STIs had increased in gay/bisexual men by 40% over the past year. This caused much blame and discussion within the LGBT media sources. When looking at this history of these health issues Michael Brown notes that the geography is intertwined with politics. Seattle’s sexual playgrounds were all geographically concentrated and were open at times that other establishments weren’t. Seattle’s preventative efforts may also have been part of the issue. Notably, even today many gay health interventions are decidedly pro-sex and may not enforce safety forcefully enough.
Seattle has many resources and a great deal of awareness surrounding.The most major HIV
focused organization is likely Life Long AIDS Alliance http://www.lifelongaidsalliance.org. Life Long organizes services for people living with AIDS and is simultaneously active in the LGBT community by holding support groups and awareness events such as Gay Bingo.
Another key organization is the Dunshee House which was originally born from Seattle's first gay awareness group, the Dorian Society. Dunshee House http://www.dunsheehouse.org/ organizes all levels and types of support groups for HIV seropositive people. Also, Bailey Boushay house is an AIDS hospice care center run through Virginia Mason Hospital.
Historically, the first person to publicly be diagnosed with AIDS in Seattle was James Flanigan. This diagnosis became somewhat of a wake up call for the rest of the gay community. In October 1983 men were writing the Seattle Gay News telling the community to wake up and start to protect themselves. Seattle's ACT UP chapter also started organizing protests and doing work to get funding for AIDS care and research. In 83 and 84 the Chicken Soup Brigade (today part of the Life Long AIDS Alliance) was created by Josh Joshua. Chicken Soup became the backbone of the gay community with groups of volunteers cooking and caring for their housebound contemporaries who were very ill with HIV. Shanti/Seattle was also created to train volunteers to understand the emotional stages of HIV/AIDS. Overall, in the beginning there was a lot of denial that Seattle would not get hit by the AIDS virus but the community quickly organized and many activist say now that Seattle's gay community has one of the strongest HIV/AIDS networks.
In 1967 University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
's Professor Nick Heer founded the Dorian Society which was the first group in Seattle to support gay rights and which published a newsletter
Newsletter
A newsletter is a regularly distributed publication generally about one main topic that is of interest to its subscribers. Newspapers and leaflets are types of newsletters. Additionally, newsletters delivered electronically via email have gained rapid acceptance for the same reasons email in...
about current issues and events in the gay community. The name was a reference to the Doric Hellenic warriors of Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
who considered homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
glamorous and the society was modelled on New Zealand's Dorian Society
Dorian Society
The Dorian Society was the first New Zealand organisation for homosexual men. It was primarily a social club and avoided political action. In 1963 it took the first steps towards law reform by forming a legal subcommittee that collected books and other resources. It also provided legal advice to...
. Their mission was to create a more respectable image of the Seattle homosexual. They also wanted the reform the Seattle sodomy
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
laws. In response to their efforts a Seattle Times headline stated on September 21, 1966, Tolerant Reputation: Seattle homosexual problem reported to be 'out of hand. This article stated the Seattle police wanted to suppress the LBGT community, partially by removing liquor licenses at gay bars. In May 1967 the The Daily of the University of Washington
The Daily of the University of Washington
The Daily of the University of Washington, usually referred to in Seattle simply as The Daily, is the student newspaper of the University of Washington in Seattle, USA.-History:...
did a series on the gay community, which for the first time represented the community in a more positive light. Much of this positivity had to with vigilant PR and work of the Dorian Society.
Seattle has quite a vibrant LGBT community. The Capitol Hill neighborhood in particular is considered by many to a bit of a "center of gay life" in Seattle, with gay-friendly businesses and nightlife, and a resource centers. Seattle has the second largest community
Gay community
The gay community, or LGBT community, is a loosely defined grouping of LGBT and LGBT-supportive people, organizations and subcultures, united by a common culture and civil rights movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
after San Francisco with 12.9% of its city identifing as LGBT.
Hate crimes
Despite the general atmosphere of tolerance towards the LGBT community in Seattle, there have still been recorded instances of homophobic hate crimesHate crime
In crime and law, hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or...
, particularly in Capitol Hill (the center of LGBT life in the city) and in open public spaces such as Volunteer Park. In one case, in January 2009, eleven gay bars and clubs in Seattle were sent letters threatening ricin
Ricin
Ricin , from the castor oil plant Ricinus communis, is a highly toxic, naturally occurring protein. A dose as small as a few grains of salt can kill an adult. The LD50 of ricin is around 22 micrograms per kilogram Ricin , from the castor oil plant Ricinus communis, is a highly toxic, naturally...
attacks.
Vaudeville
The Garden of AllahGarden of Allah (cabaret)
The Garden of Allah was a mid-20th century gay cabaret that opened in 1946 in the basement of the Victorian-era Arlington Hotel in Seattle's Pioneer Square. It was Seattle's most popular gay cabaret in the late 1940s and 1950s and one of the first gay-owned gay bars in the United States...
was the most popular homosexual Seattle cabaret in the 1940s and 1950s. Regular vaudeville and drag shows were held there with talented singers dressed in drag. Intriguingly this became a hotspot in the post war period, even with service-persons. In the 1960s the military made most gay establishments in Seattle off-limits. Later, in the 1970s vaudeville became something a little different. Seattle began the trend of courts.
By the 1970s public drag clubs called courts, with “emperors” and “empresses” …[and] Lip –synching would removed the need for singing talent and open the way to any man who could dance, quip, or even just costume. Performances would change, with ever-more flamboyant costuming, more energetic and choreographed dancing and even laser shows.
The 70s introduced new gay Seattle hotspots such as Mocambo, the Golden Horseshoe and the Golden Crown.
Dancefloors, bars and clubs
In the 1950s and 1960s, Seattle's dance clubs served as important pointsfor the community to meet and strategize, which Gary Atkins claims may be likened to the African-Americans who used churches to organize during the civil rights movement. During the 1950s, when anti-sodomy laws were still in effect in the United States, gay bars, clubs and bathhouses became scrutinized. Owners of such establishments would frequently bribe law enforcement to ensure their survival as well as prevent harassment of their mostly gay clientele and escape legal consequences themselves. Seattle city officials believed that the city was not doing enough to enforce laws discriminating against homosexuality and feared that eventually it would be as openly acceptable as in cities such as San Francisco. As a result of the political upheaval regarding Seattle gay bars, the Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board sent fourteen gay establishments letters threatening to bar them from military personnel. In 1966, the Seattle police chief suggested restrictions on gay bars such as withholding their liquor licenses. The current mayor, Dorm Braman, also instructed the police to “discourage the inflow” of homosexuals to Seattle.
Today, sodomy laws have been repealed by the Supreme Court, and Seattle has generally become more affirming of LGBT people. More recently, gay bars and clubs have enjoyed a central prominence for community organizing. For example, in 1987 Life Long AIDS Alliance created the "Jars in Bars" program that allows community volunteers to engage in education outreach regarding AIDS and enables patrons of Capitol Hill bars to donate to their cause. The Seattle mayor and other city officials are also much more receptive to the gay community. Mayor Greg Nickles considers the January 2009 ricin threats a very serious problem.
Pride Week
From June 24 to June 30, 1974, Seattle’s lesbians and gays celebrate the city’s first Gay Pride Week. This is the first event in the region in which the gay community as a whole comes out of its collective closet. On June 28, 1974, the Gay Community Center at 1726 16th Avenue E held a grand opening. On June 29, 1974, a Saturday, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that about 200 attended a picnic at Occidental Park in Pioneer Square. Entertainment included music and a "Gayrilla theater." Banners from the stage read "Proud to be lesbian, Proud to be gay." In the afternoon, activities moved to Volunteer Park and included roller-skating and a sing along at the top of the Volunteer Park Water Tower. That evening, a street dance was held in Occidental Park that featured music by Blue Moon and Sue Isaacs. On June 30, 1974, Gay Pride Week concluded with a "Gay-In" at the Seattle Center that featured "zany dress, general frivolity, carousing and a circle dance around the main International fountain."Health issues
Seattle in the later 1990s and early 2000s hinted (mostly via media) a sense of complacency and malice towards safe sex practices. AIDSAIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
was becoming more “normalized” and Gonorrhea
Gonorrhea
Gonorrhea is a common sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The usual symptoms in men are burning with urination and penile discharge. Women, on the other hand, are asymptomatic half the time or have vaginal discharge and pelvic pain...
, Syphilis
Syphilis
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...
and Chlamydia cases all rose. A combination of effectiveness in anti-retroviral therapies and increase in use of intravenous drugs influenced a rise in STIs. The “watershed moment” occurred in 2003 when King County Public Health released a report saying that STIs had increased in gay/bisexual men by 40% over the past year. This caused much blame and discussion within the LGBT media sources. When looking at this history of these health issues Michael Brown notes that the geography is intertwined with politics. Seattle’s sexual playgrounds were all geographically concentrated and were open at times that other establishments weren’t. Seattle’s preventative efforts may also have been part of the issue. Notably, even today many gay health interventions are decidedly pro-sex and may not enforce safety forcefully enough.
Seattle has many resources and a great deal of awareness surrounding.The most major HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
focused organization is likely Life Long AIDS Alliance http://www.lifelongaidsalliance.org. Life Long organizes services for people living with AIDS and is simultaneously active in the LGBT community by holding support groups and awareness events such as Gay Bingo.
Another key organization is the Dunshee House which was originally born from Seattle's first gay awareness group, the Dorian Society. Dunshee House http://www.dunsheehouse.org/ organizes all levels and types of support groups for HIV seropositive people. Also, Bailey Boushay house is an AIDS hospice care center run through Virginia Mason Hospital.
Historically, the first person to publicly be diagnosed with AIDS in Seattle was James Flanigan. This diagnosis became somewhat of a wake up call for the rest of the gay community. In October 1983 men were writing the Seattle Gay News telling the community to wake up and start to protect themselves. Seattle's ACT UP chapter also started organizing protests and doing work to get funding for AIDS care and research. In 83 and 84 the Chicken Soup Brigade (today part of the Life Long AIDS Alliance) was created by Josh Joshua. Chicken Soup became the backbone of the gay community with groups of volunteers cooking and caring for their housebound contemporaries who were very ill with HIV. Shanti/Seattle was also created to train volunteers to understand the emotional stages of HIV/AIDS. Overall, in the beginning there was a lot of denial that Seattle would not get hit by the AIDS virus but the community quickly organized and many activist say now that Seattle's gay community has one of the strongest HIV/AIDS networks.
See also
- Capitol Hill (Seattle) (gay village)
- Equal Rights WashingtonEqual Rights WashingtonEqual Rights Washington is Washington’s largest state-wide LGBT advocacy and community outreach organization. ERW's mission is to ensure and promote dignity, safety, and equality for all lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Washingtonians....
- LGBT rights in the United States
- Washington House Bill 2661Washington House Bill 2661Washington House Bill 2661 is a Washington state law which bans employment, insurance and housing discrimination against LGBT individuals, passed by the Washington State Legislature on January 27, 2006, and signed into law by Governor Christine Gregoire four days later...