Organizers of the Christian rally that led to a police crackdown on counter-protesters in Cal Anderson Park are suing the city.
The federal civil rights case filed last week in the U.S. District Court for Western Washington alleges the city and Mayor Bruce Harrell violated the group’s rights and created a dangerous, hostile situation when officials denied a permit for a downtown event and pushed the rally up to the Capitol Hill park instead. Continue reading
(Image: Club 29)
By Domenic Strazzabosco
On the third Wednesday of every month, in the back section of E Pike’s Elysian Capitol Hill Brewery, queer cribbage group Club 29 meets to play the centuries-old game. With roughly two dozen attendees, the players gather for a few hours in a round robin-style, many also enjoying a bite to eat or a draft beer from the local brewery.
Tim Maass founded the club almost three years ago after he noticed a friend from a gay dodgeball group posting about the table game on Instagram. He recalled thinking to himself, “Wait, other gay millennials play cribbage?” Maass then posted on social media, asking if others he knew played, and instantly got enough comments to coordinate a meetup. A friend offered space at their restaurant, Otter Bar & Burger in Eastlake, where the group originally formed.
Last fall, a TikTok featuring the group’s custom rainbow board quickly accumulated over 40 thousand views and culminated in another monthly Seattle meetup, as well as one in Tacoma and another in Everett. The Seattle locations now include Elysian Brewing and Baja Bistro in Beacon Hill on the first Tuesday.
Going on three years since his first Facebook post, Maass has only missed one meetup, and now considers the unofficial title “That Gay Cribbage Guy” to be the best he’s ever had. Continue reading
The park in 1903 (Image: Seattle Municipal Archives)
The Friends of Denny Blaine group is celebrating what they say was a symbolically important recognition this week of the lakeside park and nude beach:
Today, September 23, the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) voted unanimously to add Denny Blaine Park to the State’s Heritage Register of historic places. This decision marks two historic firsts: the first nude beach ever nominated in Washington, and the first nomination to explicitly include a direct connection to LGBTQ+ heritage.
The state register is intended to form an “official listing of historically significant sites and properties found throughout the state” but does not have an administrative component at this time to oversee preservation and protection of the sites. Continue reading
Lifelong CEO James Shackelford (Image: Lifelong)
If rising costs have limited eating out to special occasions, then Lifelong’s Dining Out For Life might be such an occasion. The perennially popular event partners with local restaurants to raise money to support Lifelong’s range of services—from HIV support to food and nutrition, from housing to aging and disability—which the organization has provided for decades.
On Thursday, September 25, three dozen restaurants throughout Seattle will donate a percentage of their sales to Lifelong. Capitol Hill is well represented, with a/stir, Cantina del Sol, Gemini Room, Honeyhole, McMenamins Six Arms, morfire, Oddfellows Cafe and Bar, Plenty of Clouds, Stoup Brewing and Noodle Cart, Terra Plata, and Union joining the event.
If it’s your first time participating in Dining Out For Life, you won’t be alone.
Lifelong CEO James Shackelford is a newcomer, too. Hired this summer when Erica Sessle stepped down after three years as the organization’s CEO, Shackelford arrives having spent more than 25 years in nonprofit, mission-driven leadership roles, including at amfAR (Foundation for AIDS Research).
“As Lifelong’s CEO, I’m able to pull from my work in global and public health, HIV, aging and disability, policy and advocacy and community engagement to ensure we’re providing the very best client service, we’re being bold and innovating, growing to meet client needs and bringing the community along with us in the fight for health access,” Shackelford told CHS. Continue reading
Cabbage and sunshine filled Cal Anderson Park Sunday as the Kimchi Life Festival brought a day of communal fermentation to the popular Capitol Hill public space.
The event supported by the county and city was part of increased efforts to encourage activities gatherings in the park to help support the space. In September, An Urban Skills Survival Fair will bring another type of community building to the park.
One of the best things about Cal Anderson is that so many communities consider it part of their home turf and worthy of their love, energy, and action. Continue reading
The city says the August 30th fundamentalist Christian rally planned for Cal Anderson Park will be moved to Gas Works
Today, Mayor Bruce Harrell and Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth (District 3) released the following statement after Seattle Parks and Recreation issued a park use permit for a religious concert event at Gas Works Park:
“According to the law, the City cannot deny or unilaterally relocate permits for public spaces based on the content of the speech or the impacts of that speech on the community. Recognizing that Cal Anderson Park is an important gathering space for our LGBTQ+ residents and receiving their feedback on the event location, we worked with the organizers to suggest alternative park locations.
In the city’s statement, Mayor Bruce Harrell and District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth explained the move saying the rally organizers agreed to move their event to Gas Works Park. “We are grateful that they were receptive to our recommendation,” the joint statement reads. Continue reading
Seattle Parks quietly moved ahead this week with a plan to create a “nude zone” In Denny Blaine Park with new signs and fencing. Thursday night, somebody tried to rip that nude zone fence down.
Seattle Police were called to the park on the shores of Lake Washington just before 10 PM to a report from a nearby resident that someone was trying to rip down the just-installed fencing. Cops were looking for the suspect described as a male wearing a green shirt, black shorts, and a backpack last seen leaving the area on foot but it is not clear if they ever tracked the suspect down.
The surprisingly fast turnaround on the project to install the new signs and fencing happened quickly this week as the city responds to a court order to address sex and drug crime around the park reported by neighboring property and area residents while, city officials say, also attempting to respect the beach’s place in Seattle’s queer and nudist communities. Continue reading
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office is relying on technicalities as it explains the status of city permits for an August 30th anti-LGBTQ fundamentalist Christian rally in Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park.
“Park Use Permits aren’t issued for about two weeks (~15-30 days) prior to an event. See full permit process here. So at this time, a permit has not been issued for this event,” the mayor’s press secretary Callie Craighead told CHS Wednesday.
CHS asked Craighead what the Harrell administration is doing to protect the neighborhood and prevent the issues that occurred in May as Seattle Police moved on crowds of counter-demonstrators gathered in the park.
The mayor’s office has not responded.
Now, another concert and rally from the church groups is planned to return to the Capitol Hill park despite previous vows from city officials. Continue reading
While the battle to keep Denny Blaine nude is playing out in court, members of the queer and nudist communities that love and utilize the park have continued to visit the popular beach this summer.
In a city where developers and wealthy NIMBYs seem to be nearly constantly scheming to carve up public space for private gain, revolutionary energy is also bubbling up at Denny Blaine in the form of puppets, nudity, and unapologetic queer defiance.
This weekend, guerrilla performances transformed the lakeside park into a stage for radical satire, bodily liberation, and a middle finger to privatization. The shows were part absurdist comedy, part scathing political critique, and directed their ire at figures like Stuart Sloan, the wealthy neighbor who has spent years trying to sanitize Denny Blaine, and Mayor Bruce Harrell’s laughably inept attempts to placate the NIMBYs.
One performance swung between nostalgia for freer times and biting commentary on whose bodies get to take up space. “These are my boobies!” declared an actor, fully nude except for a top hat. It was cheeky but the message hit home. Freedom has some rough edges — and the battle isn’t done. Continue reading
The Seattle Community Police Commission is seeking accounts of the experiences of demonstrators and park-goers caught up in the SPD response to protests against an anti-trans and reproductive rights Christian rally in Cal Anderson in May.
“Your experience can help inform our work and ensure community perspectives are part of upcoming reviews and policy recommendations,” the flyer being sent to LGBTQ community groups reads.
The Saturday, May 24th Christian rally ended with police moving on demonstrators protesting the event from On Fire Ministries, a Spokane-based religious group that has grown under Christian fundamentalist pastor and former state representative Matt Shea and is supported by anti-LGBTQ religious activist Sean Feucht. There were multiple arrests but no significant charges made against demonstrators. Continue reading
