History of the LGBT community in Seattle

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 accepting 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.[1]

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.

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Hate crimes

Despite the general atmosphere of tolerance towards the LGBT community in Seattle, there have still been recorded instances of homophobic hate crimes, 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.[2]

LGBT culture

Vaudeville

The Garden of Allah 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 1970s 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 points 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.

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. AIDS 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 [1]. 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 [2] 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

LGBT portal
Seattle portal

References

  1. ^ Atkins, G. (2003). Gay Seattle: Stories of exile and belonging Seattle: University of Washington Press.
  2. ^ Seattle Times