The Seattle Freedom Day Committee 1985 poster. Courtesy of Chris Smith. The 1985 poster brought together the two rival pride events.

1985

After the split of the previous year, 1985 proved to be one of the most successful parade/marches ever. Over 10,000 people participated, giving weight to the theme “Strength through Unity and Pride.” One dynamic contingent banner proclaimed, “Teachers with Pride Still Have to Hide,” and was carried by marchers with brown paper bags over their heads. The disco boys on the float sponsored by Tugs Tavern tossed free condoms to the crowd.

For the rally, FDC hosted nationally prominent speakers: Dr. John Bush from Black and White Men Together; Merle Woo from the Freedom Socialist Party; and Nancy Roth, Executive Director of the D.C. based Gay Rights National Lobby. Music filled Volunteer Park with the upbeat sounds of Stanley’s Wife and the Fabulous Belle Reeves, and Richard Eastey performed an electrifying modern dance.

This was the year Rock Hudson died of AIDS. Finally national attention was directed to this horrible disease.

Seattle Freedom Day Committee 1986 poster. Courtesy of Chris Smith. The year 1986 again saw two rival events. The Freedom Day Committee’s poster reflected its commitment to defeat rightwing anti-gay attacks.

Seattle Lesbian/Gay Pride Festival 1986 poster. Courtesy of Chris Smith. Balloons but no picket signs was the graphic message of the event organized by a competing group, The Pride Festival, that decided it was unable to work with the Freedom Day Committee and chose to sponsor a celebration.

1986

The community faced three nasty right-wing attacks in 1986. Initiative 490 proposed to bar homosexuals from teaching or holding jobs involving children. Referendum 7 was an attempt to delete sexual orientation from King County’s Fair Employment Ordinance. Initiative 479 would deny abortion funding for poor and low-income women in Washington State.

The theme of the parade/march, “Unite to Fight for Human Rights, NO on 490/479!” clearly demonstrated the intensity of the community’s response to these battles. All three legislative attacks failed and the mobilization of the queer and left community was crucial to their defeat.

Meanwhile, within FDC, contention raged. Eight weeks before the parade/march, co-chairs Larry Leffler and Carol Sterling resigned over the volatile compromise between protest and celebration. They joined forces with yet another new group called the Pride Festival and held a non-political community fair at the Broadway Playfield to highlight lesbian and gay community groups.

Ruth Balf and Ed Aaron stepped in as new FDC co-chairs and organizing for the annual event fervently continued.

The next obstacle was raised by the City of Seattle, which suddenly denied a permit to start at the usual place on 18th and Cherry in the Black community. Instead, the city wanted the parade to start from 11th and Union. FDC saw the city’s actions as a deliberate attempt to shorten the march and confine it to Capitol Hill, the main gay neighborhood. In protest, a group of 150 activists marched without a permit from the original site located in the African American Central District and met the other marchers at 11th and Union. In a press release, the activists said, “Traditionally [this] had been a show of solidarity between groups of people who know what it’s like to be oppressed.”

Over 200 organizations endorsed the 1986 FDC parade/march and rally. According to the June 30th Seattle Times, attendance numbered between 10,000 and 15,000 people. This was hugely different from the 300 who marched in 1981.

Seattle Freedom Day Committee 1987 poster. Courtesy of Chris Smith. The days were darkened by HIV/AIDS deaths, but the Freedom Day Committee urged the queer community to find joy in fighting.

1987

The 1987 march was somewhat somber, despite the cartoon-like poster designed by FDC’s Vaugh Frick. The AIDS epidemic had profoundly changed the country and the city. Across the nation the queer community demanded more health care funding and organized the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian/Gay Rights. In 1987 the People of Color Against AIDS Network (POCAAN) began in Seattle and the confrontational group ACT/UP formed in New York City.

FDC’s 1987 theme was “Unity in Pride, Power, Life and Justice!” Seattle Gay News proclaimed, “Most successful Lesbian/Gay Pride Week Ever!”

The rally in Volunteer Park featured the powerful jazz singer Dee Daniels, whose Somewhere Over the Rainbow helped express the sadness of so many AIDS deaths while strengthening the spirit to fight on. Bob Rohan, president of the Northwest AIDS Foundation, spoke against mandatory testing for HIV and against discrimination. This was also the year Cal Anderson was appointed to the Washington House of Representatives, becoming the state’s first openly gay legislator.

Seattle Freedom Day Committee 1988 poster. Courtesy of Chris Smith. “Celebrating Our Love; Fighting for Our Lives” said it all. Unfortunately a coffee stain can be seen in the upper right corner of the animated poster. It was too late to fix the layout.

1988

FDC’s theme “Celebrating our Love; Fighting for Our Lives!” caught the tenor of the times. During this year, gay bashing and AIDS hysteria were at an all-time high in Seattle and across the country. A Washington court ordered the state’s first mandatory HIV test for Steve Farmer, who a year before had been charged with taking photographs of a seventeen-year-old male sex worker. Many people in the community were convinced that Farmer was set up. The Stonewall Committee launched a Steve Farmer Defense Committee.

Openly gay Cal Anderson, who had been appointed due to a vacancy, was formally elected to the Washington House of Representatives. Locally, queer activists promoted self-defense training and demanded respectful treatment and adequate police protection for people living with AIDS. These issues were reflected in the parade/march and rally.

Renee McCoy from the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays and the dynamic Loren Laureano with the National Association of People with AIDS captivated the huge crowd. Meanwhile, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence helped everyone empty their pockets and contribute to the community fight-back.

Seattle Freedom Day Committee 1989 poster. Courtesy of Chris Smith. This year marked twenty years since the New York Stonewall riots.

1989

This year’s theme, “Stonewall Rebellion 20th Year, 1969–1989,” commemorated the anniversary of the riots in New York City that set off the modern gay liberation movement. ACT/UP Seattle began. In the Northwest, well-organized demonstrators primarily led by the United Front Against Fascism vastly outnumbered the neo-Nazi white supremacists attempting to recruit to their violent ideology on Whidbey Island, at Evergreen State College in Olympia, and in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Efforts from the queer community were essential in disrupting their efforts.

Gay organizers asked for and gained support for the Pride event from various labor unions and from the King County Labor Council thanks to the leadership of FSP’s Fred Hyde and other unionists.

At the rally, rousing speeches were delivered by Milton Farquhar, an African American from the Association of People Living with AIDS, Scott Fields from the Stonewall Committee, Judy Vega from People of Color Against AIDS Network (POCAAN), Chris Smith from the Freedom Socialist Party, and Cherry Johnson, director of the Lesbian Resource Center.

A mammoth arch of rainbow-colored balloons framed the stage in Volunteer Park and jazz vocalist Dee Daniels returned to sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

FDC organizers estimated the crowd at 20,000 to 25,000, a testament to the Freedom Day Committee’s tenacity.