Pri Skate - Gay Cy: Seattle's LGBTQ Center

Contents:

• OAKS PARK GAY SKATE IS ON A ROLL
• THE SWALLOW, A NEW GAY BAR, OPENS WHE CENTER, AND A BIG-NAME CHEF TO INTERBAY
• WHE CENTER KEEPS GETTG GAYER
• 'QUEER SKATEBOARDG': PHOTOGRAPHER DOCUMENTS GAY SKATER CULTURE
• THERE HAVE BEEN AT LEAST 39 GAY OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS. HERE’S THE LIST
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW
• ICE SKATERS PLAN TO STAND AGAST RSIA'S GAY LAW AT OLYMPICS
• BO MILLER: RSIA'S GAY RIGHTS ISSUE IS 'EMBARRASSG'
• MOSW GAY BARS
• THREE OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS E OUT — 2 GAY MEN AND 1 QUEER WOMAN

OAKS PARK GAY SKATE IS ON A ROLL

As the Edorial Director/Co-Owner, Michael Strangeways wr, eds and do about a ln other jobs for Seattle Gay Scene, Puget Sound's most vised LGBTQ news, arts and entertament webse now celebratg s 14th year as a media outlet.

THE SWALLOW, A NEW GAY BAR, OPENS WHE CENTER, AND A BIG-NAME CHEF TO INTERBAY

The events the Whe Center neighborhood will celebrate the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer, tersex, asexual, and all sexual and genr mory (LGBTQIA+) people. It is a Sunday night, and I'm a gay bar Whe Center for the third night a row. We are at the Swallow, a ntil-themed gay bar recently opened by Marc Wilson, the creator and former manager of the popular Capol Hill bar Pony.

While rints will tell you that the unrporated Kg County neighborhood, jt south of Wt Seattle and north of Burien, has long been a gay hub, you uld say this Pri is a sort of g out of the closet for the area. Marg and Loughridge say they created the Pri ft as a way of gettg the neighborhood together, but also to show off many of the new small and gay-owned bs that have popped up Whe Center. The clu the Lumber Yard Bar and the Swallow, the area's first gay bars, but also Dottie's Double Wi, a trailer-themed bar and rtrant, and the Plant Store, a very cute plant shop owned by a nice man named Mil.

Directly across the street at the Lumber Yard Bar, a lumberjack-themed gay bar, 's even rowdier.

WHE CENTER KEEPS GETTG GAYER

Lumber Yard says is Whe Center's first gay bar. While dg at Dnky Two Sho durg Whe Center Pri, I had the unique experience of eatg bone marrow next to a table full of gay pups. It was at that moment that I felt I'd tly arrived the gay neighborhood of the future.

Many gay fai, phed out of Capol Hill and other areas, have been movg south.

And now the gay bars.

'QUEER SKATEBOARDG': PHOTOGRAPHER DOCUMENTS GAY SKATER CULTURE

Another ncern raised about the two new gay bars Whe Center is their malens, nsirg the neighborhood has long had a signifint lbian muny, many of them women of lor.

One man said was like a big gay rnn, seeg people he hadn't seen years.

Startg January 2022, Oaks Park will host Gay Skate on the first and third Monday of every month. The first time I went to Gay Skate at Oaks Park, I was 19, and on a first date wh a girl om my llege.

THERE HAVE BEEN AT LEAST 39 GAY OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS. HERE’S THE LIST

It’s been around for so long that now people who started g to Gay Skate as teens n brg their own children to the event. Back when Safar first started spng there, Gay Skate looked a ltle different. Started 1991 as a fundraiser for gay men’s square-dancg group the Rosetown Ramblers, the event almost exclively attracted gay men  s earlit days—no women and fely no LGBTQ youth.

THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

In her time, she’s seen Gay Skate go om an event that pulled 50 people to one that attracts hundreds.

ICE SKATERS PLAN TO STAND AGAST RSIA'S GAY LAW AT OLYMPICS

In fact, the event has gotten so popular that, startg January 2022, Oaks Park will start prentg Gay Skate twice a month, every first and third Monday. But Gay Skate offers an alternative, all-ag space to e together.

” Years after she started workg here, MacKay has two dghters who e to Gay Skate nights. The last skate of 2021 was Gay Skate’s 30th anniversary, and the team went all out. The Lumber Yard, a gay bar, opened 2017.

A send gay bar, the Swallow, opened 2019 but closed permanently 2020. “We’re not explicly jt a gay bar, but we wanted to ntue to make an LGBTQ-iendly space, ” owner Amy McCormack says. “I thk a lot of gay people are movg away — farther south, and I thk that is where our opportuny is.

BO MILLER: RSIA'S GAY RIGHTS ISSUE IS 'EMBARRASSG'

”Smh creds the Lumber Yard Bar, loted across the street, for brgg the gay scene here. The Lumber Yard, billed as Whe Center’s first gay bar, draws as big a crowd as any LGBTQ bars on Capol Hill sce buted last year. The patg is a bathroom at the Lumber Yard Bar, one of the new gay bars Whe Center.

It's found the bottom floor bathroom at Lumber Yard Bar, one of the now MANY (as TWO and, by the end of this year, THREE) gay bars on the 16th Ave strip Whe Center.

MOSW GAY BARS

Or the Washgton State Liquor and Cannabis Board's ant attack on dicks gay bars? But the patg leads to my send surprisg revelatn: Whe Center is beg a very gay statn. After succsfully gentrifyg Capol Hill and turng to a bedroom muny for Amazon el, the gays have set their sights on Whe Center.

THREE OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS E OUT — 2 GAY MEN AND 1 QUEER WOMAN

They were workg the door at The Swallow, a new gay bar opened by noted queer Seattlee Marc Wilson (the -creator and former manager of Pony, who has also performed as drag artist Ursula Android and played the electro-punk group Ononos).

It's fun and cisey, both that feels like a gay cise ship and like you uld cise a few guys and get your dick sucked out the alley.