Rainbow crosswalks on Capitol Hill are very nice, but they don’t provide much in the way of context.
Personally, I think the gay ghosts of the People’s Theater, the Double Header, and the Atlas Steam Bath deserve a little more than we’ve given them. Wander through the area today and you’ll barely see any indication of what it was a century and a half ago.
It’s a testament to queer peoples’ sheer force of will and intense need to connect that they were able to endure the homophobia and corruption in the police force to the extent that they had to in order to keep the doors open.Įventually, redevelopment changed the face of Pioneer Square, and the burgeoning boulevard of Broadway on Capitol Hill, coupled with the availability of housing after the Boeing Bust, lured the gayborhood away from its early roots. The Caper Club, it was called, and it provided thousands of dollars in kickbacks to cops. At one point in the 1960s, the police even conspired to open a gay bar across the street from police headquarters.
