The History of Seattle Pride

June is Pride Month and the nation is celebrating 50 years since the 1969 Stonewall Riots.  Seattle, however, is in its 45th year of celebrating Pride.  Seattle has been in the forefront of combating racial and gender appropriations since that fateful day in 1969 with riots in New York.  Finally feeling brave, a group of Seattle natives started organizing and created a new community center along with the Seattle Counseling Service for Sexual Minorities.  Around the nation, more and more LGBTQ folks were demanding more, making their voices heard.  David Neth and his friends used this opportunity to create Seattle Gay Pride Day in 1972.  Unfortunately, this didn’t stick.  Undeterred, a couple years later, Neth and his friends decided to focus on the gay community, inviting them to come out of hiding.  They created a week of events in June and embraced “Gay is Proud” as their theme in 1974.  The week ended with no more than 50 people frolicking around the International Fountain.  Just three years later, Seattle Mayor Wes Uhlman declares the first city sanctioned Gay Pride week, which included the first official pride march. 

Fast forward 45 years and we have a full month of Pride events around Seattle.  The annual Volunteer Park Pride festival kicked things off on June 8th.  This family friendly event celebrates queer arts, music, and culture.  Pride month ends with a bang on Sunday, June 30th.  The Seattle Pride parade starts at 11am at 4th and Pike St in downtown Seattle.  This four-hour long parade will end near Seattle Center.  For more events, visit SeattlePride.org.