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Gay Seattle: Stories of Exile and Belonging
Winner of a 2004 Washington State Book Award
Winner of a 2004 Alpha Sigma Nu (ASN) Jesuit Book Award
In 1893, the Washington State legislature quietly began passing a set of laws that essentially made homosexuality, and eventually even the discussion of homosexuality, a crime. A century later Mike Lowry became the first governor of the state to address the annual lesbian and gay pride rally in Seattle. Gay Seattle traces the evolution of Seattle's gay community in those 100 turbulent years, telling through a century of stories how gays and lesbians have sought to achieve a sense of belonging in Seattle.
Gary Atkins recounts the demonization of gays by social crusaders around the turn of the century, the earliest prosecutions for sodomy, the official harassment and discrimination through most of the twentieth century, and the medical discrimination and commitment to mental hospitals that continued into the 1970s as homosexuality was diagnosed as a disease that could be "cured."
Places of refuge from this imposed social exile were created in underground theater and dance clubs: the Gold Rush-era burlesque shows, modern drag theater, and in mid-century the emergence of openly gay bars, from the Casino to Shelley's Leg. Many of these were subjected to steady exploitation by corrupt police - until bar owner MacIver Wells and two Seattle Times reporters exposed the racket.
The increasingly public presence of gays in Seattle was accompanied by the gradual coalescence of social services and self-help organizations such as the Dorian Society, gay businesses and advocacy groups including the Greater Seattle Business Association, and the stormy relationship between the Vatican, Seattle's Catholic hierarchy, and gay worshippers.
Atkins' narrative reveals the complex and often frustrating process of claiming a civic life, showing how gays and lesbians have engaged in a multilayered struggle for social acceptance against the forces of state and city politics, the police, the media, and public opinion. The emergence of mainstream political activism in the 1970s, and ultimately the election of Cal Anderson and other openly gay officials to the state legislature and city council, were momentous events, yet shadowed by the devastating rise of AIDS and its effect on the homosexual community as a whole.
These stories of exile and belonging draw on numerous original interviews as well as case studies of individuals and organizations that played important roles in the history of Seattle's gay and lesbian community. Collectively, they are a powerful testament to the endurance and fortitude of this minority community, revealing the ways a previously hidden sexual minority "comes out" as a people and establishes a public presence in the face of challenges from within and without.
Winner of a 2004 Alpha Sigma Nu (ASN) Jesuit Book Award
In 1893, the Washington State legislature quietly began passing a set of laws that essentially made homosexuality, and eventually even the discussion of homosexuality, a crime. A century later Mike Lowry became the first governor of the state to address the annual lesbian and gay pride rally in Seattle. Gay Seattle traces the evolution of Seattle's gay community in those 100 turbulent years, telling through a century of stories how gays and lesbians have sought to achieve a sense of belonging in Seattle.
Gary Atkins recounts the demonization of gays by social crusaders around the turn of the century, the earliest prosecutions for sodomy, the official harassment and discrimination through most of the twentieth century, and the medical discrimination and commitment to mental hospitals that continued into the 1970s as homosexuality was diagnosed as a disease that could be "cured."
Places of refuge from this imposed social exile were created in underground theater and dance clubs: the Gold Rush-era burlesque shows, modern drag theater, and in mid-century the emergence of openly gay bars, from the Casino to Shelley's Leg. Many of these were subjected to steady exploitation by corrupt police - until bar owner MacIver Wells and two Seattle Times reporters exposed the racket.
The increasingly public presence of gays in Seattle was accompanied by the gradual coalescence of social services and self-help organizations such as the Dorian Society, gay businesses and advocacy groups including the Greater Seattle Business Association, and the stormy relationship between the Vatican, Seattle's Catholic hierarchy, and gay worshippers.
Atkins' narrative reveals the complex and often frustrating process of claiming a civic life, showing how gays and lesbians have engaged in a multilayered struggle for social acceptance against the forces of state and city politics, the police, the media, and public opinion. The emergence of mainstream political activism in the 1970s, and ultimately the election of Cal Anderson and other openly gay officials to the state legislature and city council, were momentous events, yet shadowed by the devastating rise of AIDS and its effect on the homosexual community as a whole.
These stories of exile and belonging draw on numerous original interviews as well as case studies of individuals and organizations that played important roles in the history of Seattle's gay and lesbian community. Collectively, they are a powerful testament to the endurance and fortitude of this minority community, revealing the ways a previously hidden sexual minority "comes out" as a people and establishes a public presence in the face of challenges from within and without.
464 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2003
15 people are currently reading
180 people want to read
About the author
Gary Atkins
5 books3 followers Gary L. Atkins is an award-winning journalist whose works include the critically acclaimed Gay Seattle: Stories of Exile and Belonging and his new book, Imagining Gay Paradise: Bali, Bangkok and Cyber-Singapore. He specializes in creative non-fiction journalism, fusing an easy-to-read narrative style powered by strong characters with questions about history, geography, communication, and social justice. Gay Seattle follows the 100-year-long saga through which gay men and women imagined their “coming home” – rather than just their “coming out” -- in the context of the Pacific Northwest’s famously wet landscape and roguish history. Similarly, Imagining Gay Paradise journeys through a century of imaginings of paradise and manhood by gay men in the tropical geography of Southeast Asia. The story stretches from the end of the colonial empires to the present world of cyberspace, ranging across the development of the aesthetic paradise of Bali in the 1920s and 1930s to the erotic paradise of Bangkok fostered from the 1960s onward, and to the cyber-paradise promoted since the 1990s in Singapore. Gay Seattle was published by the University of Washington Press in 2003 and received numerous accolades for its fusion of journalism and scholarship, including a Washington State Book Award and a national Jesuit Book Award. The University of Hong Kong Press is publishing the hardback edition of Imagining Gay Paradise and is joined by Silkworm Press of Thailand as co-publishers of the paperback edition. Imagining Gay Paradise is also being made available as an e-book.
Gary first became interested in writing about age six when his parents gave him a rubber-type printing press. He immediately started producing a newspaper for his local neighborhood in New Orleans. In high school, he initially thought he might become a historian or a biologist – two other strong interests – but eventually he realized that if he entered journalism, he could write about all three of his interests: current political and legal events, history, and nature. He graduated from Loyola University and then Stanford University, served an internship on the Washington Post and joined the Pulitzer-winning Riverside Press-Enterprise in California -- where he won numerous awards for his narrative and environmental reporting and writing. Seattle University hired him to teach in and chair its Communication Department and, in 2005, named him a full professor. He teaches courses in narrative journalism, communication justice, media and sexual/gender justice, and international communication in Asia.
Gary first became interested in writing about age six when his parents gave him a rubber-type printing press. He immediately started producing a newspaper for his local neighborhood in New Orleans. In high school, he initially thought he might become a historian or a biologist – two other strong interests – but eventually he realized that if he entered journalism, he could write about all three of his interests: current political and legal events, history, and nature. He graduated from Loyola University and then Stanford University, served an internship on the Washington Post and joined the Pulitzer-winning Riverside Press-Enterprise in California -- where he won numerous awards for his narrative and environmental reporting and writing. Seattle University hired him to teach in and chair its Communication Department and, in 2005, named him a full professor. He teaches courses in narrative journalism, communication justice, media and sexual/gender justice, and international communication in Asia.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 4, 2013
Gay Seattle is an excellent work of history, managing to cover a large scope of people and events while rarely allowing the narrative flow to get bogged down. Atkins does a marvelous job of adding a "missing layer" to the standard histories of the city by capturing the journey of a segment of the population that was largely ignored until recently. There are many courageous stories in these pages, and even when dealing with well-known events (such as the AIDS crisis), the author manages to instill drama into his history without becoming maudlin or morbid. Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in the history of Seattle.
October 20, 2024
I have read many histories of particular gay and lesbian communities for my research. This was one of the best and most moving! Atkins does a terrific, sometimes heart wrenching, job of capturing individual struggles and triumphs and of portraying the ongoing struggles of the lesbian and gay communities in Seattle. Reading Atkins helped me think about how to present my own research about the lesbian and gay communities in Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota.
December 13, 2023
Some of the language really does not hold up, but for an LGBTQ-centric history of a mid-sized US city, I doubt this book has any serious rivals.
The early history parts were a little slow for me. I really enjoyed reading about the police protection rackets, the early organizing for rights, about Archbishop Hunthausen (MT mentioned), and about Cal Anderson, because I had walked through the park that bears his name, so may times without knowing.
The police corruption parts would make a great movie.
I don't live in Seattle, but it's my favorite place to visit, so many of the places the author talked about were recognizable, but not ones I knew really well. It would be really cool if there were walking tours that went along with the book.
Despite the title, the book does talk about lesbians in Seattle as well as gay men. The author acknowledges that there could be more about other groups. Maybe someday?
Overall, even though it could use a language update, it is an excellent history of gay Seattle that should be on the must-read list of all queer people who live in or love the area.
The early history parts were a little slow for me. I really enjoyed reading about the police protection rackets, the early organizing for rights, about Archbishop Hunthausen (MT mentioned), and about Cal Anderson, because I had walked through the park that bears his name, so may times without knowing.
The police corruption parts would make a great movie.
I don't live in Seattle, but it's my favorite place to visit, so many of the places the author talked about were recognizable, but not ones I knew really well. It would be really cool if there were walking tours that went along with the book.
Despite the title, the book does talk about lesbians in Seattle as well as gay men. The author acknowledges that there could be more about other groups. Maybe someday?
Overall, even though it could use a language update, it is an excellent history of gay Seattle that should be on the must-read list of all queer people who live in or love the area.
April 9, 2024
An excellent, well-researched history of gays and lesbians in Seattle. It does get a little dry at times, but Atkins has a pleasant writing style, so the book is, for the most part, readable. I would recommend it to anyone interested in Seattle history.
January 7, 2016
I was particular interested in the stories about the Catholic church's role for and against gay and lesbian civil rights, as anything involving religion was not part of the life I lived after age 20, so that part of Seattle history was all new to me.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews