Seattle Gay News
Pride 2020 Issue 26, Volume 48, June 26, 2020
Arts & Entertainment 50 YEARS OF PRIDE:
SF City Hall photography exhibition documenting five decades of San Francisco’s iconic LGBTQ celebration now online
Disabled gay rights contingent at the 1977 San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade – Photo by Marie Ueda, Marie Ueda Photographs (2006-12), GLBT Historical Society
see 50 YEARS OF PRIDE page 20
Seattle’s 1980 Pride Parade 40 years ago by Roger L. Winters Special to the SGN
Mike Lowry, Roger Winters, and Lamar Faulkner – Photo courtesy of Roger Winters
One day, Lamar Faulkner had a bright idea. We should have a Pride Parade on Broadway and a celebration in Volunteer Park! Lamar was my friend, a co-conspirator, a collaborator, and a hero. We met through The Dorian Group (TDG), Washington state’s largest Lesbian/Gay rights and education organization from the mid-’70s into the ’80s. Lamar was an attorney, a Board member, and a Co-President. He served as the treasurer for a great many worthy candidates and campaigns. Lamar Faulkner was always doing something for the cause. His contributions helped us progress in countless ways. He died from cancer in 2006. In 1972 I had come to Washington state to teach political science at Central in Ellensburg. Through friends in Seattle, I learned about feminism, homophobia, and more. I got involved with the ACLU of Washington and became a feminist, a civil libertar-
ian, an activist. I moved to Seattle in 1977 and staffed TDG’s Smith Tower office until 1979. I spoke for the ERA, helped start the candidate evaluation process when SEAMEC began. By 1980, I was TDG’s Co-President and Co-Chair of SEAMEC. I was the go-to guy for Lesbian/Gay news for a while, appearing on local TV news shows. I was just 35. Seattle’s Pride Marches in the mid’70s were set in downtown Seattle where the LGBTQ+ spaces were. Speakers at the Occidental Park rallies declared war against homophobia and heterosexism. Some called for revolution. The voices of protest made it clear that we were out of the closet and never going back! By 1980, the focus shifted to Capitol Hill, a neighborhood where, on streets like Broadway and Pike and Pine, we could be open, free, and proud every day. We felt more at home on the Hill. Besides…we had just won a war against homophobia!
see SEATTLE 1980 page 10
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“All Americans must be given equal rights and opportunities, regardless of who they love or how they identify. I remain committed to fighting for the equality of all people and disavowing hatred.
I’m proud to be a longtime ally of the LGBTQIA+ community, as well as for those with intersectional identities.”
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We usually love painting our faces and sticking them in the middle of things but we feel that it is neither the time nor place to displace attention.
It’s time to listen, learn and organize.
Black Lives Matter
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SEATTLE 1980 continued from cover
In 1978, after voters repealed laws against discrimination based on sexual orientation in Miami, St. Paul, Wichita, and Eugene by large margins, it was Seattle’s turn. Two Seattle policemen filed Initiative 13, to legalize discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing and employment. Their group, called Save Our Moral Ethics (SOME), got it on the November ballot. One of the policemen hardly helped their cause when he shot a fleeing black man in the back. The other showed reporters some gay porn magazines he kept in his desk “so you can see what they do!” On our side, Citizens to Retain Fair Employment (CRFE) called Initiative 13 a threat to privacy. In its TV ad, a family was peacefully eating dinner. As the camera drew back, you could see they were being watched, filmed, recorded. “Your privacy is at stake. Vote NO on Initiative 13!” Other anti-13 groups, the Seattle Committee Against Thirteen (SCAT) and Women Against Thirteen (WAT), campaigned against the blatant homophobia. Whether to keep discrimination illegal or to defend privacy, 63.5% of the voters said “NO!” to Initiative 13 on election night. A lot of folks, prepared to face another defeat, staged a march through downtown. THE FIGHT’S NOT OVER said a banner. That, of course, was true. Still, this one time, the religious zealots and homophobes who tried to restore discrimination against Lesbians and Gay men had been beaten at the ballot box by Seattle voters by nearly 2-1! We had won this war for our rights. It was time for some joy! That same night, California voters listened to Harvey Milk and rejected an initiative to fire all Gay/Lesbian teachers. One writer cited the historic importance of the California and Seattle votes, adding: “…The vote in Seattle…seems even more consequential [than the California vote]; future observers may well come to regard [Seattle] as a kind of El Alamein of the gayrights struggle, the place where a long series of defeats was halted and the first efforts toward a broader victory made.” The huge celebration at the Eagles Auditorium was one of the happiest events of my 48 years living here. A sign proudly proclaimed “13-ly NOT!” Soon, though, Harvey Milk was assassinated. Elation quickly faded. The 1979 Pride March the next June was again downtown. It was still a protest, but the scent of parade was there. And so it came to be that next spring that Lamar, on finding no one had yet started planning a June 1980 Pride event, got permits from the City and Seattle’s first Pride Parade was set for Saturday, June 28, 1980. The Dorian Group invited the community, the clubs, businesses, and organizations, to come to Broadway, to walk in celebration of our city, ourselves, and each other, and then to join a rally in Volunteer Park. No one had to come, but just about everyone did. The Dorian Group had “seized control,” some said. As Co-President of Dorian, I was to prepare and give a keynote speech at the park. Activist Lois Thetford volunteered to make a keynote speech, too. Gender balance was something TDG always tried to ensure. The Pride Parade was great. Folks were high-spirited and diverse. Protesters protested, dancers danced, politicians politicked, and people populated the sidewalks to watch. The crowd at the park was friendly, lounging on the grass, socializing, walking about. Some were even paying attention to what people were saying from the stage. In 1981, the community regained control. Before long, Seattle had a “Parade/March,” showing its pride in protest and in people. The Broadway route and Volunteer Park festival was quickly termed a “tradition,” until 2006 when Pride went back downtown and became Seattle’s biggest event. Last year, I went to several Pride events
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– marches, parades, gatherings, festivals – downtown and on Capitol Hill. I walked with The Pride Foundation in the Parade. I took the Monorail to Seattle Center for a taste of the festival. Things certainly had grown apace. The official estimate for the 1980 crowd was 4,000. The official estimate for the 2019 crowd was 400,000! On June 28, 1980, I read my speech from the stage at Volunteer Park. On June 28, 2020, I plan to step onto the stage at Volunteer Park and read it again, for a “virtual” Pride event. Only 40 years will have passed, but I think the speech is still relevant, apart from the reference to “the challenges of the ‘80s.” Readers can judge for themselves. I was optimistic and I am optimistic still. As I said in ending the speech: “Our enemies grow stronger daily. But so can we, knowing that when we win, everyone
found liberty which we celebrate today. It truly is a time to celebrate, especially here in Seattle. Where else have the people spoken so loudly and clearly against homophobic bigotry, than when they defeated Initiative 13 by nearly two-to-one in 1978? Where else is there the breadth and depth of support for our rights – among elected officials, among church groups and leaders, in the labor movement, in the women’s movement, among radicals and revolutionaries, and elsewhere? Seattle is a liveable city, and it’s because we live here, as an important and contributing part of it all! But, wait! If lesbians and gay men are today relatively better off in Seattle than most other places, does that mean we have succeeded? Of course not. Today, every single gay and lesbian service agency here – be it political, communications, social, or social service – is in deep
1978 Candlelight March – Photo courtesy of NWLGHMP
is free, but when they win, no one is free. “Our liberation ultimately will be celebrated by all people, for it is we who are showing the world the power and the beauty of love and freedom, and the glorious flowering that comes when people are free to be themselves. It is we, after all, who are making the world safe for diversity!” At 75, I keep getting drawn into LGBTQ+ activism. This year I re-joined the Seattle Metropolitan Elections Committee (SEAMEC) Steering Committee after a 41-year absence. Six of us, women and men, are working to question candidates and assign them grades and ratings, so voters will know where they stand on LGBTQ+ concerns. We’re looking for people to help, particularly youngsters. We old folks will have to slow down a bit eventually. To help lead, raise funds, interview candidates, or donate some money, go to www.VOTESEAMEC.org. If SEAMEC doesn’t suit you, there are a thousand other things you can help with. Get busy! Help out! Have fun! We face many challenges today. The focus on LGBTQ+ concerns seems small compared with injustices experienced by others. Racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, inequality, corruption, pollution, global warming, human rights, human services, violence, healthcare, unhappiness, freedom, independence, faith, firearms, and more – these issues affect people from all walks of life. There is plenty of work worth living to do and doing to live. Another friend and hero, George Bakan, also had a passion for our movement, the people in it, our revolution. He died this month, at his desk. Much has been done and so much remains for us to do. Happy Pride! Keynote Speech by Roger L. Winters 1980 LESBIAN AND GAY PRIDE RALLY June 28, 1980 Seattle, Washington This is a great day! Ever since June of 1969, when those drag queens and street gays fought back against police harassment at the Stonewall in Greenwich Village, wonderful things have happened, bringing greater liberty, growth, and community to gay men and lesbians all over the world. It is that new-
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helping the groups that serve our people. All that stands in the way are our own excuses – and there is no more excuse for that! By resolving today to open ourselves more fully to understand each other, we can build a unity and strength of community that no one has seen before. We are a truly diverse people – so we must first praise the power and beauty of diversity itself. However we might feel about the personal tastes, style, beliefs, or ways of living, loving, and playing among our brothers and sisters, we must affirm fully the right of each person to be responsible for herself or himself without unjust interference. We must act in unity to advance our common interests. We have it in our power to end the long neglect we have all too often shown for one another: • Gay men can end their sexism by confronting it and by working hard to exorcise it.
1978 Victory Party at Eagles – Photo courtesy of NWLGHMP
financial difficulty. Resources are not coming in at a rate sufficient to keep them alive much longer. All of them are trying hard to raise money – for the money exists – but still, only a relatively few of our people are yet giving anything to themselves by supporting these agencies. Today, the forces of homophobia continue to work hard in our state against our basic human rights – they have struck in Pullman and Tacoma, they are striking through the initiative process, and they will strike again. Today, the organized amalgamation of reactionary politics and fundamentalist religion grows ever richer, ever more strident, and ever more powerful in opposing equal rights for all in America. People everywhere are responding to the fear merchants of Anita Bryant Ministries, Christian Voice, The Moral Majority, and others, all of whom, by their lies and by cultivating ignorance about us, enrich their leaders and threaten the foundations of constitutional separation of Church and State. They are using us as a spearhead in their continuing campaign to erase the social, political, and economic gains made by women and minorities in recent times. Though much has been gained since Stonewall, these gains hang by a thread, and there is much, much more that must be done. I think the very worst form of oppression for our people has always been neglect. It is evident in society at large as the blind assumption that everyone in the world is heterosexual or should be. It also exists within our own community – we neglect ourselves by neglecting each other, by failing to use the powers we have to demonstrate our concern, our desire for full freedom and equal rights, and our determination never to allow any of us to be driven back to the sub-human status reserved for us by the homophobes. In the face of all of this, we can at least be heartened by the knowledge that there is much we can do, if we will: By resolving today to lend our talent, our time, and a reasonable portion of our incomes to the lesbian and gay organizations who are serving us, we can ensure continued strength and success in gaining and protecting our rights, in erasing the lies about us which so many still believe, and in meeting the unique and critical needs facing our people because of centuries of vicious oppression. We are worth it! We deserve to help ourselves by
Many already have, and have learned thereby that true personal liberation is impossible while sexism remains. • There can be an increase in the amount of time spent by lesbian women and gay men working side by side. Banishing sexism from our midst is impossible without the help of women. Besides, it is not gay men who are the main body of the forces of heterosexism, that vicious prejudice which elevates heterosexual men by demeaning all women and gay men. Together, the men and women of our movement can work wonders. • The common experience of the hells of homophobia can make all of us agents for change in alleviating the special miseries of the least well-off and most oppressed of our sisters and brothers. To do this, we must banish racism as well as sexism. We must understand and take action to help the people who are especially harmed by heterosexism – the gay and lesbian poor, the lesbian and gay racial minorities, the gays and lesbians who are imprisoned, lesbian and gay refugees to America, and all of those who, by being forced by real dangers to stay in a closet, are isolated and in real need of our friendship and support. • All of us who differ in our political beliefs, our sense of how to effect change, and our vision of the future can nevertheless combine forces when we clearly have common interests. By celebrating the freedom our political and philosophical diversity represents, while sharing honest criticisms, we can continue to help each other grow into ever more effective actors, groups, causes, and movements. Yes, we celebrate gay and lesbian Pride today! We deserve it! We created it! And we will keep it! The Challenges of the Eighties are clear, and they are great. Our enemies grow stronger daily. But so can we, knowing that when we win, everyone is free, but when they win, no one is free. Our liberation ultimately will be celebrated by all people, for it is we who are showing the world the power and the beauty of love and freedom, and the glorious flowering that comes when people are free to be themselves. It is we, after all, who are making the world safe for diversity! Thank you.
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Pride
The Dykes on Bikes, 1988; photograph by Saul Bromberger and Sandra Hoover Photography, used with permission, all rights reserved.
50 YEARS OF PRIDE continued from cover
SAN FRANCISCO (April 29, 2020) – The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the opening of the “50 Years of Pride” exhibition in San Francisco City Hall. An online version of the exhibition will instead be unveiled on May 15 on the GLBT Historical Society’s website at glbthistory.org, with the physical exhibition opening later in the year after the city’s shelter-in-place order has been relaxed. Presented by the GLBT Historical Society and the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) Galleries, with the support of San Francisco Pride, “50 Years of Pride” features 100 photographs to celebrate five decades of San Francisco Pride, one of the city’s most beloved public festivals. On June 28, 1970, a small group of LGBTQ people marched down Polk Street – then San Francisco’s most prominent queer neighborhood – to mark an event called “Christopher Street Liberation Day.” Commemorating the one-year anniversary of the historic Stonewall uprising on Christopher Street in New York City, the march was followed by an intimate “gay-in” at Speedway Meadows in Golden Gate Park. Fifty years later, this modest gathering has evolved into San Francisco Pride, a globally famous annual parade and celebration that welcomes hundreds of thousands of participants and spectators from around the world the last weekend in June. Encompassing examples of photojournalism, portraiture, fine-art photography, posters, and magazine covers, “50 Years of Pride” honors how San Francisco’s LGBTQ community has come into its own since that first humble Pride gathering. The exhibition explores how Pride has reflected and refracted the community’s priorities, responses, and activism in times of hope and despair, triumph and setback. Images drawn from the GLBT Historical Society’s archives are joined by photographs from other institutions, as well as works by over a dozen independent queer photographers. The exhibition is curated by Lenore
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Chinn and Pamela Peniston, two San Francisco artists with deep roots in the city’s queer arts and culture community. “Culling through the archives at the GLBT Historical Society, we found a treasure trove of photographs, snapshots, and 35 mm color slides that tell a story of the spirit and nature of Pride and what it has come to mean both locally and internationally,” Chinn said. Thematically, the photographs document the impact of political events and social movements on Pride. They also illustrate the transformation and diversification of the event over the years into a celebration event that represents the full spectrum of gender, race, ethnicity, class, gender identity and expression, sexuality, and ability. “Our outreach to photographers and their archives amplified our discoveries,” Chinn notes. “With the rise of gay power and an expanding movement, we saw more participation and more diversity along gender and ethnic lines.” “50 Years of Pride” is a collaborative project of the GLBT Historical Society and the SFAC Galleries. “The history of Pride over the last half century in San Francisco is as complex and diverse as our city,” said the GBLT Historical Society’s executive director, Terry Beswick. “It is also a great lens through which we can examine the evolution of our LGBTQ rights and freedoms, as well as our awareness of how our movement intersects with other social justice movements. I’m so proud to have curators Pam Peniston and Lenore Chin tell these stories through this exhibit.” Meg Shiffler, director of the SFAC Galleries, said, “The SFAC Galleries is thrilled to partner with the GLBT Historical Society to produce this expansive anniversary exhibition. SF Pride is a San Francisco treasure that has become a globally recognized and totally integrated part of our civic and cultural identity.” The SFAC Galleries is also celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2020. This exhibition has been made possible by the generous support of San Francisco Pride. “We could not be more excited about the way ‘50 Years of Pride’ helps illuminate the complexity of our story,” said Fred Lopez, executive director of SF Pride. “It’s frequently said that LGBTQ history
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Members of the contingent representing the San Francisco General Hospital’s HIV Clinic at Ward 86 march hand in hand, 1984; photograph by Saul Bromberger and Sandra Hoover Photography, used with permission, all rights reserved.
Royalty, 2011; photograph by Adam Chin, used with permission, all rights reserved.
is American history, and that’s undeniably true, particularly here in San Francisco. Exhibitions like this highlight our unique
nature as a city at the forefront of all things LGBTQ.” Additional support for “50 Years of Pride” is provided by the National
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John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney representing marriage equality, 2012; photograph by Daniel Nicoletta, used with permission, all rights reserved.
Endowment for the Arts and San Francisco Grants for the Arts. “50 Years of Pride” opens Friday, May 15 on the GLBT Historical Society’s website at gltbhistory.org. The physical exhibition will open later in 2020 on the ground floor and North Light Court in San Francisco City Hall once the shelter-in-place order has been relaxed. About the curators Lenore Chinn is a painter, photographer, and cultural activist who works to create structures of personal and institutional support that both sustain critical artistic production and advance movements for social justice. Portraiture, both in painting and photography, is at the core of her visual art practice. Her current street photography chronicles a rapidly changing sociopolitical landscape. A San Francisco native, she was a founding member of Lesbians in the Visual Arts and a co-founder of the Queer Cultural Center, and has been active in the Asian American Women Artists Association since the group was founded. Pamela Peniston is a founding member and artistic director of the Queer Cultural
“Rise, Resist, Unite,” 2017; photograph by Lenore Chinn, used with permission, all rights reserved.
Center and has been one of the curators for the visual and performing arts at the National Queer Arts Festival since its inception. She has won numerous awards for her work designing and painting sets for national and Bay Area theatrical and dance companies. Peniston’s photographic interests are split among the wonder and beauty of nature, women in windows, the beauty of simple architectural elements, and the community and humanity of people around the world.
sity. Founded in 1985, the society maintains one of the world’s largest collections of LGBTQ historical materials. The society’s operations are centered around two sites: the GLBT Historical Society Museum, located since 2011 in the heart of San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood; and the Dr. John P. De Cecco Archives and Research Center, open to researchers in the MidMarket district. For more information, visit www.glbthistory.org.
Complementary exhibition The GLBT Historical Society is also presenting a complementary exhibition about San Francisco Pride, “Labor of Love: The Birth of San Francisco Pride, 1970– 1980,” which documents the early years of the annual celebration. This exhibition will open on the GLBT Historical Society’s website in the summer of 2020.
Located in the heart of San Francisco’s Civic Center, the SFAC Galleries makes contemporary art accessible to broad audiences through curated exhibitions that both reflect our regional diversity and position Bay Area visual art production within an international contemporary art landscape. By commissioning new works, collaborating with arts and community organizations, and supporting artists’ projects, the SFAC Galleries provides new and challenging opportunities for contemporary art to engage with a civic dialogue. The SFAC Galleries was founded in 1970 and is the exhibitions program of the San Francisco Arts Commission, the arts
The GLBT Historical Society is a public history center and archives that collects, preserves, exhibits, and makes accessible to the public materials and knowledge to support and promote understanding of LGBTQ history, culture, and arts in all their diver-
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agency of the City and County of San Francisco. For more information, visit www. sfartscommission.org. The mission of the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Pride Celebration is to educate the world, commemorate our heritage, celebrate our culture, and liberate our people. The annual event on the last weekend of June is the biggest gathering of the LGBTQ community and allies in America as well as San Francisco’s largest outdoor event, consisting of a two-day celebration in Civic Center plus a parade down Market Street with more than 280 contingents marching. Since 1997, SF Pride has awarded over $2.5 million in proceeds to local nonprofit LGBTQ organizations and those organizations working on issues related to HIV/AIDS, cancer, homelessness, and animal welfare. For more information, visit www.sfpride.org. Courtesy of the San Francisco Arts Commission
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Happy Pride!
We’re with you! We’re a welcoming church congregation that would love to see you on Sundays! Bring your partner/spouse, friends, family, children; we have room for everybody! Come join us for worship on Sundays at 10:30 am. We look forward to meeting you!
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