We will have many, many more soon but here are 10 scenes from the weekend’s Pride celebrations on Capitol Hill including the annual PrideFest street festival on Broadway, the Dyke March, Prom Dress Rugby at Cal Anderson, and Friday night’s Trans Pride celebrations in Volunteer Park. Happy Pride.
Forty-five years after the AIDS epidemic began, many still mourn lost community members and fight the stigma of a positive diagnosis. Today, an estimated 1.2 million Americans live with HIV — benefiting from improved medical care, yet still navigating life without a cure.
Above Capitol Hill Station, a 20-foot high sculpture made up of speakers creates an “X” above the plaza. Entitled ‘andimgonnamisseverybody,’ the piece is a backdrop to daily life in the neighborhood, from commutes to weekly farmers markets, and a central component of the AIDS Memorial Pathway.
Proposed by Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen in 2015, the AMP project got underway in 2017, beginning its fundraising, artwork selection and installation. It debuted five years ago on a hot and sunny Pride weekend on Capitol Hill.
“We wanted to have a visible site, a place that was physical and accessible that was relevant to the community,” Rasmussen tells CHS.
When the idea was first proposed, multiple locations were scouted throughout the city, but when Sound Transit confirmed the area north of Cal Anderson Park, above the light rail station, was available for local art installations, it seemed the perfect fit for an AIDS Memorial in the city.
“That’s our history — we were there. The gay bars were there, the community organizations were located on Broadway or Capitol Hill, the hospitals that treated those affected were all up there adjacent to or in the vicinity of that space,” Rasmussen reflected. “This is where people lived and died and were cared for.” Continue reading
(Image: GenPride)
By Matt Dowell
What happens when a city makes a place for its LGBTQIA+ seniors to remain in the middle of the changing queer-friendly community many of them grew up in? On Broadway just between Pine and Pike, Lots of good things like bumping into neighbors like you getting morning coffee or visiting the 4,400-square-foot health and community services center right on the ground floor.
There are also things from the other end of getting older and seeking a quieter, more peaceful existence than Broadway around 2 AM on a Friday night.
“Noise is not just an annoyance – it kills and disables,” says Rick Grossman resident at Pride Place, the affordable housing development for LGBTQIA+ seniors on Broadway.
“We’ve measured noise levels in an eighth floor apartment with a closed triple-paned window at 95 decibels,” he said. “Earplugs don’t help when the floor and bed vibrates. One neighbor sleeps in her bathroom.”
Grossman’s months-long campaign to address nightlife noise levels near his building has caught media attention. He says that in the last eighteen months, the streets near Pride Place have seen an increase in both unpermitted street food vendors who blast amplified music and cars that race with modified exhaust systems.
But Grossman says that he has had a hard time getting in touch with local leaders. When he’s made contact, he’s not been satisfied with the results.
“It feels like the city has ignored the LGBTQIA+ seniors,” said Grossman. “Whether because we are gay or are older. It feels that our concerns are dismissed and we are just old codgers shouting, ‘Get off my front lawn.’” Continue reading
With a Pike/Pine business couple ready to step away from the nightlife industry, there are some changes going on in Capitol Hill’s gay bar scene.
Queer/Bar is getting familiar new owners.
Every Pride, there’s pretty much always some kind of drama or big news…over the years, we’ve had Drag Queen Drama, and Seattle Pride Drama, and, Political Drama, and just general soap opera shenanigans. For Pride 2026, it’s a simpler kind of drama…it’s just the news that Queer Bar has been sold to the owners of The Cuff Complex.
Queer/Bar husband and husband owners Joey Burgess and Murf Hall tell the SGS they are ready for “a different chapter of life” and stepping away from nightclub ownership. They continue to hold Elliott Bay Book Company, Oddfellows, and The Gemini Room.
The dramatic turn of events comes a year after Burgess and Hall sold The Cuff to Scott Walent, who talked with CHS about his career in San Francisco as an events promoter and his hopes for restoring and protecting the 13th Ave leather bar.
Now Walent is stepping up to take 11th Ave’s Queer/Bar under his wing. Continue reading
With the kind of stuff neighbors are up around Seattle parks, here’s three cheers for the neighbors of Volunteer Park where Saturday will bring the start of Seattle’s 2026 Pride festivities.
This year’s Pride in the Park will continue the growth of the annual event from its roots as a family picnic into a day of music and dancing in a full LGBTQIA2S+ celebration.
“Seattle Pride in the Park isn’t just another festival—it’s a full-on experience,” organizers say. “It’s where thousands of us come together to celebrate, dance, eat, shop, connect, and just be.” Continue reading
Suspect photo from a building security camera (Image: SPD)
Police say they have taken a 31-year-old man into custody in Bellevue for the stabbing murder of a 19-year-old University of Washington student.
The Bellevue Police Department reported they took the man into custody Wednesday night after Seattle Police released photos of the suspect earlier that day. Continue reading
The Friends of Denny Blaine group is fighting for the right to go topless this summer.
The group says it has filed a motion asking the court “to confirm that toplessness is allowed at the historically recognized LGBTQ+ nude beach.
“Recent events at the park have made that confirmation necessary, with parkgoers reporting being confronted, intimidated, and told to cover up their bare torsos by private security guards—hired by neighboring homeowners—who have invoked the court-ordered abatement plan as justification for their directives,” the group said in its update. Continue reading
Last April, two people were charged in a hate crime investigation after a water gun pellet drive-by that struck a patron outside Capitol Hill gay bar Pony.
A year later, justice has been partly served though restitution in the case remains an open issue.
Court records show the two adults charged in the incident struck plea deals this fall, pleading guilty to reduced attempted hate crime charges. the defendants received suspended sentences of a year in jail under the plea agreement plus two years of probation and restitution to be determined. Continue reading
Powell
Friends and neighbors are coming together to support a longtime part of the Capitol Hill business and creative community.
A fundraiser to support Travis Powell — 11th Ave’s The Waxing Diva — has raised thousands after his unexpected hospitalization.
“Our dear friend Travis Powell, the one and only Waxing Diva, is currently in the hospital dealing with a serious and unexpected medical situation,” the message from Vermillion owner Diana Adams reads — Continue reading
The Friends of Denny Blaine group is calling on Mayor Katie Wilson to remove the head of the Seattle Office for Civil Rights after a media report on allegations from staff that director Derrick Wheeler-Smith and and deputy director Fahima Mohamed have engaged in “discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and mismanagement” and downplayed queer issues in the city.
In February, Publicola reported on the allegations of anti-LGBTQ bias alleged by Office of Civil Rights staff as well as a litany of complaints leveled against the leadership of Wheeler-Smith and Mohamed. Continue reading
