A place to call their own
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It's the year 2001, in a city easily described as educated, savvy, tolerant and respectful.
The perfect place to be gay or lesbian.
And yet, for almost 30 years, Seattle has been one of the few major metropolitan cities in the country without a gay community center.
But last week, The Seattle Gay Culture Center announced it had secured $100,000 - half of it a matching grant from the city of Seattle - to open the first stage of a community center this summer.
The timing couldn't be better.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just reported that one-third of young gay black men in large U.S. cities are infected with HIV. The study - which included Seattle - showed that HIV infections are "disturbingly common" among gay men of all races in their 20s - a generation that grew up knowing how AIDS spreads.
On the plus side, there are bills in the state Senate and House that would offer legal protections to same-sex couples, allowing them to establish civil unions. Vermont is the only state that has passed such a law.
Both issues would be well-served by a community center, be it an outreach place or a rallying point.
"This will be the heart of the gay community," promised Karl Kaluza, chairman of the Seattle Gay Culture Center's development committee.
"We have a dream of even bigger than this," he said, adding that the center would offer senior housing and help for gays new to Seattle or young gays struggling with the emotional and social responses to coming out.
But they still need a site - preferably on Capitol Hill - with parking and bus- and handicapped-accessibility.
George Bacon, 57, of the Seattle Gay News remembered Seattle having gay community centers in the '70s that evolved into smaller groups like the Seattle Gay Clinic and a number of arts organizations that remain. "It isn't that the community stopped organizing, or the social networks that they set up fell apart," he said. "It's just not focused."
And while the gay community has won its share of political victories, it still needs a place to celebrate its culture.
"It gets better all the time," Kaluza said of being gay in America. "But there are also the issues of how a community takes care of itself. Some view being gay as a political movement. We view it as a community of sexual minorities."
Bacon agreed: "There is more to a community than an adversarial political climate. It represents a whole array...
"We will be astonished by all the needs that will arise. It doesn't reinvent what already exists, but it gives impetus and energy to the things that are not already here."
While there is great optimism for the new center, Bacon warned that a "major problem" will be having enough money for three or four staffers and monthly expenses. That, hopefully, will be the only problem.
"Seattle has always been a good place for gay and lesbian people to be," Bacon said.
It is tolerant here. People mind their own business, and while Seattle folks are spiritual, "this is the least `churchy' region in the country," he said.
"People don't care, as long as you pay your taxes and stay out of my parking space."
Nicole Brodeur's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at 206-464-2334, or at nbrodeur@seattletimes.com