Tag Archives: lgbtq

CHS Pics | Pony spending Pride 2023 ‘on the surface of Mars’

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(Image: Pony)

Capitol Hill gay bar Pony can be hard to get into during any Pride but this June is extra challenging.

“It’s true that the Pony building currently appears to have been deposited on the surface of Mars,” the E Madison queer party spot quipped in a social media post this week. “It’s also true that we are continuing to serve drinks on Mars—you just have to go around to Union St and walk around the side of the building to get in.”

Pony, of course, isn’t really celebrating Martian Pride. CHS reported here in 2021 on owner Mark Stoner’s negotiations with the city to scooch over a smidge for the under-construction Madison bus rapid transit project.

Under the deal, the city acquired a 247-square-foot portion of the Pony property along E Madison as part of the $134 million+ RapidRide G project to provide speedy, regular Metro bus service in the busy corridor. Stoner told CHS at the time he had hoped to work out a trade with the city taking what it needed on the Madison side of the bar and Pony getting new ground on E Union but land swaps with the city are against the law. In the end, Pony’s patio got a little slimmer and the bar got some cash from the city.

Part of the deal for businesses up and down Madison through the years of construction are scenes like the one currently outside Pony as crews have ripped up pavement to do needed utility and infrastructure work along the route, put new temporary pavement down, and are again ripping the streets up as part of the construction process expected to wrap in 2024.

SDOT says the last steps include installing this new underground stormwater detention tank under 10th Ave, installing a new water main,repaving the street and rebuilding sidewalks. Then, later this year and into 2024, crews will start to install shelters, ORCA readers and rider information signs at the new RapidRide stops, and the platforms for the new center-running bus stations.

Pony, meanwhile, isn’t letting the lack of pavement get in the way of playing its part in Capitol Hill Pride festivities.

And another Capitol Hill extraterrestrial hangout is marking its fourth anniversary. Life on Mars opened on E Pike in June of 2019.

 

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CHS Pics | Seattle Pride in the Park starts a month of LGBTQIA+ celebration on Capitol Hill

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Pride 2023 on Capitol Hill got started over the weekend with a day of picnics and music in Volunteer Park kicking off the coming month of LGBTQ+ celebrations.

Just one year from the triumphant return of the neighborhood’s Pride celebrations to their rightful place in June following years of pandemic postponements, 2023 festivities began Saturday with the Seattle Pride in the Park festival, the updated version of the old Pride Picnic that now fills Volunteer Park’s amphitheater lawn with free music and dancing. The 2023 theme was Galactic Love — “all about celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community as one big, beautiful, extravagant galaxy.” The weekend also brought the traditional Pride neighborhood clean-up around Cal Anderson Park.

There are plenty more Capitol Hill Pride celebrations ahead. Check out our list below and find more on the CHS Calendar.

  • FRIDAY JUNE 23RD: TRANS PRIDE SEATTLE — Trans Pride Seattle got back on its feet in 2022 — but not in time to be part of celebrations in June. This year, the celebration of transgender freedom continues its new tradition of gathering in Volunteer Park with a Friday night rally and party. Continue reading →

With restaurant plans off the table, Capitol Hill’s old R Place starts new life as The Teal Building arts space with Seattle: City of the Future exhibition

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Lidar – Bailey Ambrose Heller

By Kali Herbst Minino

The first “immersive art experience” show is now open in The Teal Building, the former home of long-gone Capitol Hill gay bar R Place.

The Seattle: City of the Future exhibition runs through June 25th and presents a 2023-era vision of Seattle’s 1962 World’s Fair “City of Tomorrow” spirit.

It also might present a look forward at the future of the auto row-era building as previous plans for a restaurant-focused redevelopment are shifting.

A neon-lit dystopian alleyway by Brandon Traynoff, an uncanny video of a (fake) human at a climate refugee camp by Ruben David Rodriguez, and a forest of hand-decorated tree trunks by Jean Bradbury are a few of the installations. The artistic mediums also vary: 3D glasses, artificial intelligence, projectors, mirrors, and yarn are all used in wildly different ways.

CHS reported here on the plans to use the former R Place building as a LGBTQ+ community arts center after the purchase of the property by Tam Nguyen and plans for the Little Saigon restaurant family to expand to E Pine and overhaul the auto row-era structure.

Shelly Farnham of Third Place Technologies said the first show planned for the space was inspired by something she has long been hoping to build.

“There are 20 of us in a room together and he says, ‘here’s this building, let’s do something with it,’” Farnham said. “I was like ‘I have an idea, I’ve been wanting to do this maze thing for a while.’” Continue reading →

New FDA blood donor guidelines end ‘no sex for three months’ rule for gay men

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(Image: nursingclio.org)

Gay and bisexual men are now able to donate blood just like everybody else. The Food and Drug Administration released a plan Thursday to replace the stigmatizing restrictions that have restricted gay men from becoming blood donors with updated federal guidelines that focus on behavior and not sexual orientation.

The new guidelines will remove the rule requiring men who have sex with men to abstain from sex for three months prior to giving blood and create a new questionnaire to screen all potential donors for their HIV risk. Anyone reporting anal sex with a new partner in the last three months will have to wait to donate.

“This proposed policy change is based on the individual behavior of the prospective donor and not on their sexual orientation or gender,” Bloodworks Northwest said in a statement. “This means that ALL prospective donors will be asked the same risk-based questionnaire when signing up to give blood. While these changes may take months to implement, we look forward to swiftly implementing the new guidance and welcoming donors who have previously been deferred from blood donation.”

LGBTQ health groups and blood clinics like Bloodworks Northwest are praising the change. “Our community has been excluded for quite some time, so this is a big step in the right direction,” Luis Viquez, an HIV/STI tester at Gay City: Seattle’s LGBTQ Center on Capitol Hill told the Seattle Times.

 

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R Place’s gay bar legacy appears to have come to an end with The Comeback closure

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(Image: The Comeback)

Any hope the spirit of Capitol Hill gay club R Place would live on in SoDo has been dashed. The Comeback has closed.

Seattle Gay Scene reported details of the “long, drawn out, painful demise” here. The Stranger says The Comeback “abruptly closed its doors Sunday with a last dance and a blowout liquor sale.”

CHS reported on the rise of The Comeback off the Hill after R Place lost its E Pine lease in 2021. Continue reading →

From its new Capitol Hill home, Three Dollar Bill Cinema readies for the 18th year of TRANSlations: Seattle Trans Film Festival with screenings beyond the neighborhood

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A scene from Anhell69

As it prepares for the 18th year of the TRANSlations: Seattle Trans Film Festival, Capitol Hill film nonprofit Three Dollar Bill Cinema has also made a change of address.

The organization has a new Capitol Hill home, moving its offices into the newly formed E Pine complex of Gay City. LGBTQ health and community facility Gay City moved into its new Capitol Hill space last summer on E Pine and took on a new mission as “Seattle’s LGBTQ+ Center.”

Next week, Three Dollar will host the 18th TRANSlations to kick off Seattle’s month of peak film festival activity including the return of the SIFF: Seattle International Film Festival starting May 11th.

TRANSlations gets the festival ball rolling starting Thursday, May 4th with screenings and events both online and in-person. For Capitol Hill film lovers, the 2023 festival will be an excuse for a field trip out of the neighborhood. Continue reading →

Here’s why the Lavender Rights Project, county officials, and Seattle’s mayor think this Capitol Hill apartment building is the right place to start a new approach to creating supportive housing and putting a real dent in the homelessness crisis

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The 35-unit building is part of a neighborhood that includes small to midsize apartment buildings and single family style homes like the famous pink house next door (Image: CHS)

An $11.6 million acquisition is turning a market-rate Capitol Hill apartment building into affordable, supportive housing for “queer, transgender, two-spirit, Black, Indigenous, people of color” experiencing chronic homelessness as county and city officials pin their hopes on a new approach to creating housing facilities better integrated into neighborhoods and communities.

King County Executive Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell squeezed into an E Republican studio apartment just off Broadway Monday morning to explain why the housing is being created here — and to introduce the Lavender Rights Project, the organization that will operate the soon to open building and make it the black and trans community resource and advocacy group’s new home with help from the American Indian and Alaska Native people-dedicated Chief Seattle Club,

“We’re working to have Health Through Housing facilities in every community, particularly communities where there’s need,” Constantine told CHS Monday about the program that powered the purchase of the newly constructed 35-unit apartment building using funding including $6 million allocated from unneeded jail spending during the pandemic.

“This building is really focused on two aspects of overrepresentation in the homeless community. Black indigenous population is massively overrepresented in homelessness,” the county executive said. “This population intersects with gender diverse communities which are also overrepresented. So this is a place where we can meet those who most need the help and get them into safe housing with services and remaining connected to community.”

The new building will be a test of the concept as previous acquisitions of hotel properties in commercial areas of the county haven’t worked out.

CHS broke the news earlier this month on the supportive housing project’s plans to join this Capitol Hill neighborhood just off Broadway near Broadway Hill Park as the county program moved beyond its earlier unsuccessful acquisitions of hotels. The Capitol Hill deal comes under the Health Through Housing measure passed by the King County Council in 2021 which aims to house up to 1,600 people experiencing chronic homelessness by using hundreds of millions of dollars raised from a sales tax on properties in Seattle and five nearby cities. The E Republican apartment building started construction more than five years ago in a process that was delayed and then brought to a standstill during the pandemic. The development’s marketing name for the project still hangs in blue letters on the building.

The county says All Health Through Housing properties will include 24/7 staffing and on-site supports “to help vulnerable people regain health and stability.”

In the project, the Lavender Rights Project and Chief Seattle Club are taking on the challenge of developing new social housing. Continue reading →

Named for Roman soldiers who are also symbols of gay love, Sergius & Bacchus goes to battle fighting for fun, bold fashion on Capitol Hill

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(Image: Jacquelyn Jimenez Romero)

By Jacquelyn Jimenez Romero

Sergius & Bacchus owners Ray Ochs and Rick Jones say they have always loved fashion, shopping, and clothes.

“What we are wearing from the comfort and the style, it impacts so many other things in our life about how we feel about ourselves,” Ochs tells CHS.

Their new Capitol Hill fashion boutique is queer-owned and out to make fashion fun by providing brave, bold, and remarkable clothing. It is also inspired by the married couple’s love for each other. The inspiration for the name comes from the Roman army officers venerated as Christian martyrs and the historical evidence that links the men as lovers and, for some, the patron saints of gay marriage.

“We’re giving people a safe space where they can come in and be their authentic selves.” Jones says. Continue reading →

March for Trans Lives crosses Capitol Hill

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(Image: Chloe Collyer)

(Image: Chloe Collyer)

A Trans Day of Visibility march filled Broadway Friday night as participants traveled from Volunteer Park to Cal Anderson Park in an event organized by a March for Trans Lives group that describes itself as a new “community based organization who believes in non violent acts of protest.”

The event featured speeches and drag performances at Volunteer Park before marching down Broadway around 6 PM. The 2023 TDOV arrived amid efforts to provide more protections across the country. In Olympia, lawmakers have been trying to shape legislation to provide more protections for runaways who may come to Washington to seek gender-affirming care. Another bill from 43rd District Sen. Jamie Pedersen would make it easier and safer for the state’s residents to change their name, a boost for privacy “for people who are trans or queer, those escaping domestic violence, and refugees,”

Friday’s organizers asked attendees to not engage with police and to refrain from unlawful activity. Continue reading →

The Cuff turns 30 with a party celebrating ‘Life, Lust and Debauchery on Capitol Hill’

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(Image: The Cuff Complex)

(Image: The Cuff Complex)

By Kali Herbst Minino

The Cuff Complex is celebrating 30 years of what it calls “Life, Lust and Debauchery on Capitol Hill” with an all-day party running from 3 PM to 3 AM this Saturday.

In 1993, The Cuff started as a concept from Scott Rodriguez and Tim F. for a “a positive social outlet for people who were into Leather, Levi’s and Uniforms.”

The surprisingly massive space has continued  with a mission to provide the “the best queer experience in the city.”

Since its creation, the club has changed ownership multiple times. Randy Fields purchased the club in 2004. Following Fields, a group of investors took over the business in 2013. Then, in late 2019, right around New Years 2020, Joey Burgess, who also owns Queer/Bar, took ownership of the club and his Burgess/Hall company that includes a collection of neighborhood businesses remains the owner today.

When Burgess purchased the club, he said preserving The Cuff as a neighborhood institution and putting it in queer ownership was at the core of adding the leather bar to his business family.

Surviving through the COVID-19 pandemic, The Cuff has remained the neighborhood institution it set out to be. According to Kitty Glitter, a host for the club’s 30th anniversary party and involved with social media management for the club, The Cuff remained a community core throughout the pandemic because of its outdoor patio. Being a safer place to gather, it also garnered a more diverse audience. Continue reading →