Seattle celebrated its first Gay Pride Week in June 1974, with a variety of festive activities at private and public venues around the city. The largest event, a day of celebrations at Occidental Park, drew a crowd of about 200. Three years later, Mayor Wes Uhlman officially endorsed the city’s pride celebration, declaring June 25 to July 1, 1977 to be Gay Pride Week in the City of Seattle. More than 2,000 supporters of gay rights turned out for the city’s first Gay Pride March.

In 2002, the 29th annual Gay Pride Parade on Capitol Hill attracted about 100,000 people. The parade was opened with 50 members of Dykes on Bikes” roaring down Broadway, and included a crew of female firefighters marching alongside a Seattle Fire Department truck.

This photo shows the women firefighters celebrating in the parade, with Lt. Tracy Franks, right, dousing Battalion Chief Molly Douce with a fire extinquisher. Douce was hired by the Seattle Fire Department in 1979, and worked her way up to become a Battalion Chief in 1992, the first woman to do so. Tracy Franks was also promoted to Battalion Chief, in 2022.

Caption information source: "It's tradition: 29th Gay Pride Parade" by Ruth Teichroeb, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 1, 2002, pp. B1, B6