‘Strippers’s Bill of Rights’ includes rollback of state’s lewd conduct liquor rules used to target Capitol Hill gay bars

You will be even more free to enjoy your happy hour mozzarella sticks at The Cuff however you want to. Washington state legislators have responded to outcry from Capitol Hill queer nightlife venues, including changes to liquor board “lewd conduct” rules as they passed a so-called “Strippers’ Bill of Rights.”

The Stranger has details of the bill including labor protections for dancers that includes a major change for Washington that “effectively allows strip clubs to sell alcohol.” The legislation also repeals the lewd conduct code that critics said was being used to target gay bars.

The bill still must pass through the senate. Governor Jay Inslee, who has said he supported the decision to suspend the liquor board rules until changes could be made, must then sign the legislation. Continue reading

43rd District Town Hall: affordable housing, strengthening public healthcare, and pushback on the liquor board

Chopp

The group of legislators representing Capitol Hill in Olympia say their work in 2024 is focused on increasing the supply of affordable housing, strengthening public healthcare, and taking on an issue of civil rights that has caused outcry in the city’s queer-friendly queer communities.

Sen. Jamie Pedersen, Rep. Nicole Macri, and Rep. Frank Chopp gathered Saturday for the 2024 43rd District Town Hall at First Baptist Church to answer community questions and discuss the most important legislative issues they’re pursuing.

The current legislative session has reached the halfway point as the state’s lawmakers meet for only a 60-day period in even years under Washington’s two-year budget system.

Chopp has long-held a focus on addressing housing concerns and cited the Home and Hope Program, which acquired 30 major sites in King County that created 7,000 homes as an example of progress.

The Housing Trust Fund supports the financing of thousands of low-income housing units across the state. The Apple Health and Homes Program allows individuals who are experiencing chronic homelessness who also live with a medical condition to have housing as part of their medical treatment.

“70% percent of the chronically homeless have a serious medical condition, a mental illness, substance use disorder, a major physical disability,” Chopp said. Continue reading

Seattle Police Department tries to answer liquor board ‘lewd conduct’ enforcement questions at LGBTQ Advisory Council

Police officials got an earful and expressed uncertainty about the future of the department’s involvement in liquor board enforcement at last week’s meeting of the Seattle Police Department’s LGBTQ Advisory Council.

The session held in a conference room of the 12th Ave Arts community and apartment building was the first meeting of the council since the Washington Liquor Control Board and SPD backed down from lewd conduct enforcement at Capitol Hill area gay bars after protest from owners and patrons.

Dorian Korieo, an assistant sergeant and LGBTQ+ liaison for the department, said last week the Joint Enforcement Team that SPD participates in with the liquor board will not evaporate but the department is looking for best ways to utilize it.

The liquor board said no citations would be issued in the lewd conduct enforcement cases and that enforcement would be suspended while board members work out new rules to address concerns around targeting and bias. Continue reading

‘Queer visibility’ — Queer/Pride announces 2024 lineup for growing Capitol Hill music festival

(Image: Queer/Pride Festival)

 

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As it joins in a fight to push back on the outmoded and misguided policies of “lewd conduct” enforcement, Capitol Hill’s Queer/Bar family of LGBTQIA+ bars and clubs is getting ready for a party and a 2024 Pride celebration of being seen and heard across the country.

Continuing efforts to grow its annual Pride party to join with celebrations at other nearby venues into a weekend neighborhood street party across Pike/Pine, the Queer/Pride Festival has announced its 2024 lineup including Tegan and Sara, Santigold, Rico Nasty, and Perfume Genius.

“Our mission is to create a safe and fun space for our Pacific Northwest lgbtqiak+ community to celebrate our culture, honor our history, strengthen our unity, and recognize our diversity,” Joey Burgess said in the announcement this week on the acts planned to headline this year’s party on 11th Ave. “We strive to generate Queer visibility throughout our festival, Seattle, and the nation,” Burgess said.

CHS reported here in 2023 on the effort to grow Queer/Pride as a three-day music festival of near Capitol Hill Block Party proportions. Organizers point out that street festival and the beer gardens at neighborhood bars take up a much smaller footprint than the annual Block Party but the growth of the three-day, ticketed event is undeniable. Continue reading

Seattle Dyke March marches on as the Seattle Dyke Alliance and its ‘double carabiner’ logo

A scene from the 2023 march

After making major changes to the longstanding Seattle Dyke March last year, the volunteer-run organization is moving forward with a new name and new growth. But the annual Capitol Hill Pride event remains a core. The Seattle Dyke Alliance is looking towards celebrating this summer’s march and its 30th anniversary.

“We wanted to change our name because we are trying to show that we’re trying to do more in the community than just the march,” said Nikki Riggin, communications manager.

The new name comes with a new “double carabiner” logo that slyly shows connected couplings in the shape of a heart.

“In the future, we hope to be a hub of resources for dykes throughout the Seattle area and collaborate with other organizations in the region,” the group says of the new logo.

After years of hosting the march on the neighborhood’s streets, organizers moved fully it into Volunteer Park in 2023. Continue reading

‘Lewd conduct’ — Capitol Hill gay bars and clubs band together to push back on liquor board inspections

The JET weekend inspection roster provided to CHS

A group of bars and clubs has issued a “call to action

A group of Capitol Hill gay bars and clubs are teaming up with neighborhood queer community leaders Dan Savage and Terry Miller in calling for the state’s liquor control board and Seattle Police officials to explain what they say was a weekend crackdown reminiscent of historical harassment of Seattle’s LGBTQ friendly venues.

Ownership at the bars including The Cuff, Queer/Bar, Massive, and The Eagle along with Savage and Miller say that citations issued over weekend over clothing and decency violations at a handful of clubs recorded by the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board and so-called Joint Enforcement Team inspectors were targeted.

The group is asking for the community to demand the liquor control board explain its actions.

“None of the venues in our coalition have ever been cited for alcohol or violence related offenses,” the statement from the club owners reads. “Citations were issued based solely on individuals’ clothing choices, such as being shirtless or wearing a jockstrap, which we consider a breach of the power entrusted to JET and the LCB for maintaining public safety.”

“The absence of violence or liquor-related issues in the citations indicates a concerning focus on targeting queer individuals in queer spaces,” they write.

Liquor control board officials met on the situation Monday and say that the enforcement effort “in no way” was targeted because of the LGBTQ affiliations of the venues, a spokesperson told CHS Monday night.

The spokesperson provided a roster of inspected bars and clubs from the weekend to CHS and said that there were “lewd conduct violations” noted to management Friday night at Neighbours and The Cuff, and again Saturday night as inspectors visited The Eagle for a complaint of service to a minor, but no citations for the issue around clothing and nudity were issued. The liquor board says management was notified of the violations and that inspectors “will follow up with licensee.”

According to the spokesperson, the inspection roster for any given weekend is driven by local JET partners including issues identified by Seattle Police and the Seattle Department of Transportation.

The clubs say the actions are a worrying new activity by the liquor board and JET. Continue reading

Fundraiser supports Pike/Pine business couple struggling with medical expenses

Friends are rallying around a fundraiser to help cover expenses for two members of the Pike/Pine business community battling health challenges.

A fundraiser has been set up to help Ray Ochs and Rick Jones as the couple behind E Pike fashion boutique Sergius & Bacchus have struggled to keep up with around $10,000 in unplanned medical expenses:

“We’ve been able to scrape by over the last few years relying on money we had in personal savings, which are now depleted,” the couple writes. Continue reading

‘KEEP DENNY BLAINE NUDE’ — Hundreds fill Seattle Parks meeting to oppose play area backed by private donor — UPDATE: Plan nixed!

Seattle Parks and Recreation says it is considering community feedback and expects to make a decision within weeks on a new kids play area at Denny Blaine after a public meeting on the project drew hundreds of supporters who want to protect the park’s place as an important gathering space for the naturist and queer communities along the shores of Lake Washington.

“We finally found a place where we can be free and open,” one speaker among the hundreds opposing the project said at Wednesday night’s meeting held at the Martin Luther King FAME Community Center. “Kids need a place to play but adults do, too.”

The voices from Wednesday’s meeting are being joined by leaders at Seattle City Hall.

“The consideration of Denny Blaine Park for a playground comes at a time when the queer community nationwide is under attacks on all fronts,” citywide councilmember Teresa Mosqueda said in a statement. “As we have heard in public comment, correspondence from community members, and in recent news coverage, Denny Blaine Park is a Seattle LGBTQIAP+ institution. I am concerned that consideration of funding from an anonymous donation to create a playground on this site plays into harmful stereotypes and creates division within our community where there was none—and could potentially put members of our LGBTQIAP+ community in harm’s way given regulations and norms around nudity in our state, which providing space for a nude beach is designed to help address.”

UPDATE 12/8/23: Seattle Parks has heard the message loud and clear. The play area project at Denny Blaine Park will “not move forward,” a representative tell CHS.

“After hearing from many community members who participated in the community process on the proposed play area project at Denny Blaine Park, Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) has decided not to move forward with the play area project at Denny Blaine,” the statement reads. “While this area of our city still lacks accessible play equipment for kids and families, we understand the feedback that this particular park is not the best location, and we will evaluate other location alternatives.”

The parks department tell CHS it is planning to meet “with leaders in the LGBTQIA+ community to better understand the importance of this beach to the community and the hopes for future uses.”

Many members of the public spoke to the importance of this space and use as a beach, and the cohesion it has brought within the LGBTQIA+ community. Additionally, community spoke of the unintended consequences adding a play area to this beach site would possibly bring. This is why we have a robust community engagement process, ensuring all people – including those who have been historically marginalized – have their voices heard and perspectives considered.

ORIGINAL REPORT: District 3 representative Kshama Sawant says her office has received hundreds of email opposing the project. Continue reading

Seattle Parks to hold public meeting on Denny Blaine play area

Seattle Parks and Recreation finally issued a press release this week announcing its planned public meeting this Wednesday night for citizens “to learn about and provide input for the Denny Blaine Park Play Area project.”

Last month, CHS broke the news on the meeting and the hush hush planning backed by an even more quiet private donor to squeeze a kid’s play area into the grassy public park popular with the many communities who have made the space a refuge for enjoying the multimillion-dollar shores of Lake Washington in the nude. Continue reading

Affordable, LGBTQIA+ focused, and neighboring Neighbours, Pride Place creates a new home for Capitol Hill seniors

After decades of community hope, Pride Place is filling with residents.

On Broadway between Pike and Pine, the affordable housing for LGBTQIA+ seniors is the first of its kind in Washington. There are 118 new homes in the project. The conveniences of modern construction and quality windows will help keep dance club Neighbours a good neighbor.

The ribbon was cut on a cold fall night in late October but energy from the new senior residents cut the chill. Taking the stage was Laney, a resident of Pride Place who had been waiting a long time for queer elders to be placed at the forefront of the community’s needs.

“Pride Place is the kind of place my friends and I talked about in our 40s, something we could only dream about,” Laney said.

Pride Place is special. Applicants must financially qualify for the building that is utilizing “affirmative marketing” to reach out to underrepresented communities and help make the new building a home for the LGBTQIA+ senior community. The building cannot restrict leasing to queer-identifying seniors because of federal housing law. Instead, Pride Place is reaching out to LGBTQIA+ seniors who meet income requirements.

Laney was a longtime resident of Capitol Hill until COVID hit and she took to the road in her minivan, leaving behind her close-knit queer community. It wasn’t a decision she took lightly, while her travels over the next couple years were full of adventure she couldn’t forget those she had left behind.

“I missed my queer community,” Laney said. “I returned to Seattle but there was no way that I could afford my apartment on Capitol Hill any longer — I couldn’t return to my beloved neighborhood.” Continue reading