Wele Home - Gay Cy: Seattle's LGBTQ Center

Contents:

• THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND THE CY OF SEATTLE DURG THE 1970S
• MOVG TO LGBTQ SEATTLE? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!

THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND THE CY OF SEATTLE DURG THE 1970S

Conversn therapy (also known as reparative therapy) are practic or treatments that attempt to change a person's sexual orientatn or genr inty, based on the discreded theory that beg LGBTQ (lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer) is a fect or disorr.

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.

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. 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.

MOVG TO LGBTQ SEATTLE? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!

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. 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.

Dpe disagreements over polil msag and tactics between the first two anizatns and CRFE, gay activists feated SOME and Iniative 13 on November 7, 1978, wh Seattle voters rejectg the iative by a near two-to-one marg. Some lbian and femist groups believed that separatism (livg, anizg, and socializg wh women only) was the answer to endg male domance, yet the Unn of Sexual Mori, a aln of gay men and women who shared anti-racist and anti-imperialist views, believed this approach to be shortsighted bee society is posed of both women and men.

There were three ma Christian mps: those who believed gays were children of God, those who argued homosexuals uld—and should—change their sexualy through fah, and others who clared homosexualy was a s of the hight orr. While Pneer Square and First Avenue were the center of gay entertament, many gay rints moved to Capol Hill as post-World War II suburbanizatn attracted wealthy and upper middle class Capol Hill fai to the suburbs. The expansn of the Ain Amerin populatn the adjacent Central District durg and after World War II also ma the southern part of Capol Hill ls attractive to more well-to-do whe rints, drivg rents down and thereby makg the area more affordable for gay rints.

The Unn of Sexual Mori, which was active the mid-to-late 1970s, rried on the polics of the ealry gay liberatn movement, nnectg the opprsn of sexual mori wh other opprsed peopl. The Seattle Urban League, an Ain Amerin anizatn, leased space s buildg the Central District for the Gay Communy Center the late 1970s, and the Central District voted agast Iniative 13 at a higher rate than any other neighborhood Seattle 1978. The Gay Liberatn movement ma easier for middle-class men to intify as gay whout fear of discrimatn, pecially after the passage of Seattle’s employment and hog non-discrimatn ordanc.

Members sought to tablish a gay mercial district along Broadway on Capol Hill, though they never succeed creatg the kd of strip like San Francis’s Castro Street or Los Angel’s Santa Moni Boulevard. The Pike/Pe Corridor, borrg Capol Hill and the Central District was a particularly ntent area which the growth of the gay muny me to direct ntact wh the historil center of Ain Amerin life Seattle. The Pike/Pe Planng Study, which brought together varoi anizatns and fancial support om the Cy of Seattle’s Neighborhood Matchg Fund to study the velopment of the Pike/Pe Corridor, clus the gay muny as belongg to the area while ignorg the historil prence of Ain Amerins.

Signs of AIDS preced the first diagnosed se Seattle November 1982, but Seattle never received the kd of attentn around “gay ncer” or GRID (Gay-Related Immuno-Deficiency) that Los Angel, San Francis, and New York did. The Northwt AIDS Foundatn (NWAF) gaed a seat at the table wh Seattle-Kg County Public Health (SKCDPH) the mid-1980s and received fundg om SKCDPH for outreach the gay muny. When the Washgton State legislature passed a gay nondiscrimatn law 2007, trans activists, many of whom hailed om Seattle, succsfully won the cln of language protectg people om discrimatn based on genr inty and exprsn.

Two s after the Starr-Stt weddg, Gay Liberatn Front members Pl Barwick and John Sger challenged the legaly of heterosexual-only marriage by requtg a marriage license September of 1971. While most gay men and lbians supported the stggle for marriage equaly, a smaller number of queer activists would rather have seen energy and rourc go to such as endg the bullyg of gay and queer youth. Cal Anrson appoted state reprentative om Seattle’s 43rd District, beg first openly gay member of the Washgton Legislature; People of Color Agast AIDS Network (POCAAN) found; Kg County forbids discrimatn agast HIV-posive unty employe.

Seattle chapter of ACTUP found; Seattle Department of Human Rights fds that habatg, unmarried partners mt receive benefs based on the 1986 amendment to the Fair Employment Practic Ordance; Cy Council approv the creatn of the Seattle Commissn for Lbians and Gays. Bailey/Bohay Hoe opens as a rintial re center for AIDS patients; Bisexual and Transgenr add to Pri Para (Lbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgenr Pri Para/March and Freedom Rally); Entre Hermanos found to promote AIDS awarens among Lato gays.

Gay rights bill pass the WA legislature; Kg County adds “genr inty” to s fn of “sexual mori”; Kg County requir private employers unrporated Kg County to extend benefs to domtic partners.

The social tumults of the late 1960s general - and the battle cry of homosexual rights sound the Stonewall (New York Cy) rts of 1969 particularly - spired a nfint sense of activism among many Seattle. Intert groups like the Dorian Society, Seattle Gay Alliance, and the Lbian Rource Center mobilized this exuberance, and turned towards gag new legal regnns of their rights as municipal cizens. Concentrated on the area surroundg the morn Capol Hill neighborhood, the groups formed a re around which a nstellatn of gay-centered bs and tablishments grew, iatg the area's long-standg reputatn as the center of Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr (LGBT) life Seattle.