Tour downtown Seattle wh Profsor Michael Brown and you’ll experience the cy om a rarely seen perspective, focg on Seattle’s gay and lbian history.
Contents:
- WHERE TO FD THE GHOSTS OF SEATTLE'S FIRST GAYBORHOOD
- AS SEATTLE’S GAYBORHOOD MIGRAT, CAPOL HILL QUEER BARS FIGHT TO REMA A REFUGE
- MAPPG SEATTLE'S GAY AND LBIAN HISTORY
- QUEEN CY COM OUT: EXPLORG SEATTLE'S LBIAN AND GAY HISTORY, BY THE NORTHWT LBIAN & GAY HISTORY MM PROJECT
- THE BT GAY BARS SEATTLE, WASHGTON
WHERE TO FD THE GHOSTS OF SEATTLE'S FIRST GAYBORHOOD
80s Gay Bars and 80s Gay Clubs Seattle near 98122 map by ClubFly - Gay Bar and Gay Club Maps * seattle gay bars 1980s *
Not enough, apparently, to keep this gay-dive-turned-trashy-hipster-hangout all l up; closed early this year but jt may be back for another round.
Christopher FrizzelleWh Pri season upon and bs utly re-openg, now might be a nice time to spend some time Seattle’s tradnal gayborhood: The mudflats below the Deadle. Long before Capol Hill beme the home of rabow crosswalks, and before Renton Hill was briefly Seattle’s gay statn the 1970s, Pneer Square (as the mudflats are now known) was where all the seedy, secret, same-sex actn happened.
AS SEATTLE’S GAYBORHOOD MIGRAT, CAPOL HILL QUEER BARS FIGHT TO REMA A REFUGE
The cy’s queer bars Seattle longtime gayborhood of Capol Hill are evolvg to meet the needs of a new generatn while ntendg wh gentrifitn * seattle gay bars 1980s *
Seattle went through wav of moral eedom and moral panic, but for most of the cy’s post-lonizer history, gay life was centered around Send Avenue and S. Next door was the upstairs gay bar The Double Hear — which state liquor spectors, who had to approve all bar nam, were too nse to realize was a sexual phemism.
Shelly Bman was a drifter stayg wh some gay iends when she attend a Bastille Day para Pneer Square; a flty non blew a solid wad of nfetti to the crowd, htg her and requirg the amputatn of her leg.
MAPPG SEATTLE'S GAY AND LBIAN HISTORY
* seattle gay bars 1980s *
It was Seattle’s first real dis, and had a giant sign out ont readg “Shelly’s Leg is a GAY BAR provid for Seattle’s gay muny and their guts. It’s a ttament to queer peopl’ sheer force of will and tense need to nnect that they were able to endure the homophobia and rptn the police force to the extent that they had to orr to keep the doors open. Eventually, revelopment changed the face of Pneer Square, and the burgeong boulevard of Broadway on Capol Hill, upled wh the availabily of hog after the Boeg Bt, lured the gayborhood away om s early roots.
Personally, I thk the gay ghosts of the People’s Theater, the Double Hear, and the Atlas Steam Bath serve a ltle more than we’ve given them.
QUEEN CY COM OUT: EXPLORG SEATTLE'S LBIAN AND GAY HISTORY, BY THE NORTHWT LBIAN & GAY HISTORY MM PROJECT
The story of LGBTQ Seattle is over 130 years the makg. In the 1880s same-sex relatns were of ltle ncern to most rints. Later, 1893, they were clared a crime, and the late 1960s, activists polilly anized around same-sex timacy. Gay Seattle fought for … * seattle gay bars 1980s *
ClubFly provis a gay bar, club, nightlife, and GLBT center mapper for Seattle, Washgton and the rt of the US filtered by 80s Seattle gay bars and clubs are mapped the gayborhood wh an overview, tags, ntact tails, webse, social media lks, trans/walkg directns, and drivg directns.
At the time, the queer bars I pass are stg silent and shuttered: Pony, whose signage announced 2014 to a changg neighborhood, “This is a very gay bar. As spac close or relote search of cheaper rent, there is an opportuny to rethk both the nature of queer space and the boundari of Seattle’s gayborhood.
My two gay bt iends and I were dner regulars at the Broadway Grill; hnted mortuary-turned-gay-bar Chapel; and danced our hearts out at club and drag performance venue R Place, where I always felt wele, both before and after I me out as queer and genr-expansive. Its five female founrs chose the space for s large wdows, a revolutnary move durg a time when “gay bars were more like speakeasi, ” as Manng told the Seattle Channel, hoed dark, hidn spac.
THE BT GAY BARS SEATTLE, WASHGTON
The gayborhood of my youth was punk-rock and unashamedly queer, a rehg ntrast to the homogenized culture and merce that domated downtown and the suburbs.
Dpe the “myth of gay affluence, ” LGBTQ people face higher rat of poverty than their cisgenred, heterosexual peers, along wh barriers to social servic and health re. At the time, strict laws regulatg sodomy, same-sex dancg, and drag forced them unrground, but most “gay bars end up simply payg off the police to prevent them om beg harassed, ” says Peter Boag, profsor and Columbia Chair the History of the Amerin Wt at Washgton State Universy. This bribery system ma Seattle “a hot town for gay people, ” as turn-of-the-century performer Hannah Banana once scribed , wh vville and drag at s center.
At the Garn of Allah, Seattle’s first gay-owned baret, renowned performers such as Skippy LaRue were drawg both gay and straight crowds 119 years before Ru Pl’s Drag Race beme a cross-cultural phenomenon. The historic Dorian Society opened a muny center there 1969; the Uned Ebony Council, a Black gay male anizatn, formed 1975, and both groups met at the Mombo Rtrant and Lounge, whose owner helped end the police bribery system. Seattle’s first publicly gay bar, Shelley’s Leg, opened 1973, terg primarily to lbians, wh other woman-oriented bars followg su.