The Stranger's Gui to the Bt Gay Clubs, Shops, and Bars Seattle - The Stranger

Contents:

• AS SEATTLE’S GAYBORHOOD MIGRAT, CAPOL HILL QUEER BARS FIGHT TO REMA A REFUGE
• WHERE TO FD THE GHOSTS OF SEATTLE'S FIRST GAYBORHOOD
• A SEND ACT FOR THE DOUBLE HEAR, THE PNEER SQUARE GAY BAR THAT LNCHED A THOAND STORI
• SEATTLE GAY DISTRICT: CAPOL HILL
• THE STRANGER'S GUI TO THE BT GAY CLUBS, SHOPS, AND BARS SEATTLE
• THE BT GAY BARS SEATTLE, WASHGTON
• GAY AND LBIAN HISTORY TIMELE IN KG COUNTY
• SEATTLE GAY BARS

AS SEATTLE’S GAYBORHOOD MIGRAT, CAPOL HILL QUEER BARS FIGHT TO REMA A REFUGE

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.

WHERE TO FD THE GHOSTS OF SEATTLE'S FIRST GAYBORHOOD

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. But as gay and lbian activism gaed tractn the 1970s and 1980s, however, s lears displaced many of the genr-expansive people and BIPOC who drove the origal movement.

A SEND ACT FOR THE DOUBLE HEAR, THE PNEER SQUARE GAY BAR THAT LNCHED A THOAND STORI

O’Stayformore has found hom Geetown for her drag show, Ban Strip; Burns scrib Whe Center’s nascent gayborhood as remiscent of “old Capol Hill, ” wh a more diverse scene that clus some of the olr lbians who might once have graced the Rose’s booths and barstools. While much of this progrs n be creded to the gay and lbian activist cultur of the 1960s and ’70s, the irony is that they created a future where the next generatn of queer people feel ls affy wh the “G” and “L” labels — and the spac that go along wh them. Even Toce, spe her publitn’s name, don’t necsarily intify wh the word “lbian” (she prefers “gay”), but feels that the Seattle Lbian is “fillg a niche the muny that I thought need to be there.

Gay women are more likely than men to marry or habate, pecially Washgton state, as well as to divorce; this siphons patrons off the lbian bar scene first when they “nt, ” and aga when they bee sgle parents. ” She would like to see more queer space that targets patrons at “different pots our liv, ” such as 25-year Hill veteran Gay Cy, which boasts a library and ffee shop along wh arts and culture programmg, youth servic, and health and tnal rourc.

SEATTLE GAY DISTRICT: CAPOL HILL

Transient male-male timacy was not necsarily labeled as gay or homosexual by ntemporari, but was stead seen as a threat to the ials of a heteronormative fay and Christian valu of Seattle’s moral guardians. Although gay dividuals lived ral areas, ci provid opportuni for men and women to pe the supervisn of their fai and neighbors, allowg for the possibily of formg distct inti, muni, and cultur.

Bellotti then opened the Double Hear bar above the Caso Pool Hall 1934, believed to be the natn’s olst ntuoly operatg gay bar until s closure on December 31, 2015.

While gay muni were already formg prr to the war, mass urbanizatn and dtrializatn durg World War II brought many people together the armed servic and fense dtri. Many men wh homosexual tennci met one another the service and went and out of major port ci that had visible and veloped gay subcultur, while women wh sexual tert othe women uld meet wartime factori.

THE STRANGER'S GUI TO THE BT GAY CLUBS, SHOPS, AND BARS SEATTLE

While not every tavern was genr-tegrated, gay men and lbians largely belonged to the same muny and uld feel fortable visg tablishments that might ter to the oppose sex, as they had durg the Great Deprsn.

Drag performanc quickly beme a central feature of the gay muny, first appearg vville performanc as early as 1898, when the natnally regnized female impersonator Edward Stewart performed a Seattle Theater productn of 1492. The Garn of Allah, a gay baret loted on First Avenue between Universy and Sene Streets that opened 1946, beme a central venue for drag performanc the postwar perd.

THE BT GAY BARS SEATTLE, WASHGTON

This venue was the first gay-owned baret Seattle, and many of s visors were heterosexual tourists and ary servicemen who me to see s famed drag performers, cludg Skippy LaRue and Jewel Box Revue.

Durg the Lavenr Sre of the Cold War, the armed servic banned personnel om visg such venu, argug that homosexualy—and by associatn, drag—would place servicemen danger of beg blackmailed by munists. Gay bars Seattle were not raid or otherwise harassed by the police as often as they were most major ci wh a large gay prence, such as San Francis and New York.

Wh the safety provid by the payoffs for patrons of gay spac, the number of gay bars creased dramatilly the 1960s Pneer’s Square and to the Central Bs District. However, when the story broke the _Seattle Tim_  1966, the reporters did not dict rpt police officers but stead remarked on Seattle’s “homosexual problem.

GAY AND LBIAN HISTORY TIMELE IN KG COUNTY

The wily accepted begng of the Gay Liberatn movement was late June 1969 when patrons of the Stonewall Inn New York Cy fought back agast a route police raid.

SEATTLE GAY BARS

Regardls, the Seattle gay muny quickly adopted Gay Liberatn: the philosophy that same-sex sexualy should be open and celebrated rather than hidn and persecuted. In a piic sponsored part by the group, atten were not allowed to wear drag, an ditn that the Dorian Society was tryg to move away om certa forms of gay cultural exprsn to achieve rpectabily the ey of hetersexual rints. Durg the era of the civil rights movement and Vietnam War (1960s-70s), Seattle’s gay activists and lobbyists were transformg Seattle to a cy creasgly tolerant of homosexualy.

Organizatns dited to gay pri clud the Unn of Sexual Mori, the Gay Women’s Alliance, the Seattle Counselg Service, the Gay Communy Center, Seattle’s chapter of the Gay Liberatn Front, Stonewall (a dg and alhol rehabilatn center), and the Lbian Rource Center.

Along wh the feat of the Briggs Iniative California, which would have banned homosexuals om teachg, the were the first mocratic feats of antigay iativ that spng up begng 1977. Proponents of Iniative 13 argued that gays were not a mory group that required legal protectn like women, blacks, Latos, Asians, Native Amerins, and other ethnic and racial groups.