In tribute to 50 years of Seattle Pride, MOHAI is proud to display a collection of Pride posters illustrating the intense organizing by Seattle’s LGBTQ+ community to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall uprising each June.
The display features digitized replicas of 26 Seattle Pride posters from the last 50 years, including 15 from the Freedom Day Committee, a diverse coalition that sponsored Pride events throughout the ’80s and ’90s, carefully balancing celebration and political action. Together, the posters offer a glimpse into the changing social, cultural and political landscape of Pride and of the Queer community in Seattle over the last 50 years.
This display was developed in collaboration with Chris Smith, a core member of the Freedom Day Committee (FDC), with contributions from Ruth Pettis of the Northwest Lesbian Gay History Museum Project, and Seattle Pride.
MOHAI thanks Chris Smith, Su Docekal, and Ruth Pettis for their help with this display.
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Seattle's First Gay Pride Week
Organized by David Neth and other activists from the Gay Community Center and the Seattle Counseling Service for Sexual Minorities, Seattle’s first Pride listed a week of events, including an outdoor dance in Pioneer Square, a “Gay-In” featuring “zany dress, general frivolity, carousing, and a circle dance” around Seattle Center’s International Fountain; and “the trashing of an oppressive institution” which turned out to be a protest at the Wallingford Police Station.
Courtesy of Ruth Pettis and the Northwest Lesbian Gay History Museum Project.
Freedom Day Committee
The Freedom Day Committee emerged in 1983 as a democratic coalition of LGBTQ organizations including the conservative Dorian Group, the Freedom Socialist Party, Radical Women, the Imperial Court of Seattle, the Black Lesbian Rap & Support Group, the Tacky Tourists, and many others. This group hammered out the first shaky compromise between protest and celebration that would hold (mostly) for the next two decades. The poster designed by Doug Barnes represents both sides of the equation with a list of issues to win and achievements to celebrate, under the theme “Diversity in Action.”
Courtesy of Chris Smith, Freedom Socialist Party.
Seattle Pride Today
Seattle celebrates the 50th anniversary of Seattle’s Pride celebrations providing the entire community an opportunity to celebrate the present, envision the future, and honor our past. Seattle Pride’s 50th anniversary theme is NOW! in recognition of the original 1974 Seattle rallying cry calling for queer rights and visibility.
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