Where to Fd the Ghosts of Seattle's First Gayborhood - The Stranger

Contents:

• QUEEN CY COM OUT: EXPLORG SEATTLE'S LBIAN AND GAY HISTORY, BY THE NORTHWT LBIAN & GAY HISTORY MM PROJECT
• GAY AND LBIAN HISTORY TIMELE IN KG COUNTY
• AS SEATTLE’S GAYBORHOOD MIGRAT, CAPOL HILL QUEER BARS FIGHT TO REMA A REFUGE
• WHERE TO FD THE GHOSTS OF SEATTLE'S FIRST GAYBORHOOD
• THE BT GAY BARS SEATTLE, WASHGTON

QUEEN CY COM OUT: EXPLORG SEATTLE'S LBIAN AND GAY HISTORY, BY THE NORTHWT LBIAN & GAY HISTORY MM PROJECT

The Queen Cy Bs Guild, an anizatn of bar owners that would eventually bee today’s Greater Seattle Bs Associatn, as well as the Uned Ebony Council, a black gay male anizatn found 1975, and part of the Court of Seattle wh s emprs and royalty, both ed the Mombo for early anizatnal meetgs.

In addn to tradnal tnal efforts such as a newsletter, the Dorian Society had a speakers bure to speak Seattle public schools, appeared on rad programs, led tours of gay bars for a program lled Urban Plunge, and hosted drag balls. This strikg image is a remr that the work of homophile anizatns like the Dorian Society and the Third Name Society (a women’s anizatn) were already makg signifint efforts toward gay and lbian visibily. Like most bars Seattle both gay and straight alike, was subject to the “blue laws” preventg activi rangg om patrons holdg drks while standg up, or the number of chairs at the bar.

(I e the term ‘equented’ bee that was the popular term ed by the police, the ary and the general prs to scribe bs or lotns ‘patronized by homosexuals. 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.

GAY AND LBIAN HISTORY TIMELE IN KG COUNTY

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.

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.

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

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. 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. 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.

WHERE TO FD THE GHOSTS OF SEATTLE'S FIRST GAYBORHOOD

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.

After the Stonewall rts and wh creasg momentum generated by Gay Liberatn activists, Mayor W Uhlman clared the cy’s first official “Gay Pri Week” 1977. 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.

THE BT GAY BARS SEATTLE, WASHGTON

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.