Friday June 15, 2007 Vol 35 Issue 24 |
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Saturday, Jul 05, 2008
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Two early Pride organizers reflect on the past, present and future |
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| Two early Pride organizers reflect on the past, present and future | ||
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SGN interviews Su Docekal from Radical Women and Chris Smith of the Freedom Socialist Party by Rajkhet Dirzhud-Rashid - SGN Staff Writer As the day grows closer to both QueerFest on Capitol Hill and the Pride Parade and PrideFest being held downtown and the murmurs around the split between those who wanted to see Pride move downtown and those who wanted to keep it on Capitol Hill die down to virtually nothing; it's good to take a look back. To see where we, as a community of both new comers and those who've been around for the entire thirty years that Pride has been observed, have come from I sat down with two founder of the Freedom Day Committee and Stonewall Committee (the groups that organized the first Pride events in Seattle, back in the mid-seventies). Su Docekal from Radical Women and Chris Smith of the Freedom Socialist Party had much to say about what Pride looked like then; where it's come from since then; and where the future should be focused. "The first Pride event I got involved in, here in Seattle was in 1974. My family had moved here from Nebraska. I'd never heard of Stonewall (the Stonewall riots that most consider the beginning of the modern day GBLT movement, but there were events that pre-dated those events)," said Docekal. She added that she immediately joined Radical Women while she attended was in high school here in Seattle. "Radical Women were helping organize the Gay Pride celebration, which was started in Pioneer Square. That's where all of the Gay bars were," she added. She went on to say that the early Pride celebration focused more on the building of a political movement and there were no parades, no marches; only a street dance in the middle of Occidental Square. "The events were pretty small back then, and it took a lot of courage to be out in public and to say you were Gay. Also, at that time, the women's movement and the civil rights movements and anti-war movements were having protests and there was a consensus that there was common ground between those movements and the early Gay rights movement that was forming too, and a lot of working together," said Docekal. "The movement in Seattle was also in response to the threat of Initiative 13, an anti-Gay piece of legislation that would have taken the language 'sexual orientation' out of an existing ordinance that protected the rights of Gays and Lesbians in Seattle. This initiative was part of an effort spearheaded by Anita Bryant in the early seventies," said Chris Smith, who is part of the reason Docekal joined the Freedom Day Committee and began helping to organize early Pride events. "Seattle was one of the few places where fair housing ordinances had been passed for Gays and Lesbians. This made us unique and, I am glad to say, we stopped Anita Bryant here," said Smith. Docekal also added that at this time, the Gay movement gained support from the labor movement in Seattle, who saw early homophobic efforts by the rank and file stopped cold, because of an outspoken, female labor organizer who saw a need for both groups to work together. "That's why I moved to Seattle, that they could defeat Anita Bryant. I knew that's where I wanted to live," said Smith. Docekal also added that, at this time, activists in the anti-racism movement and the early Gay movement decided to join forces, seeing that by working together against racism and homophobia, there could be more unity and more gains for all. "That's when the marches expanded in size. People really had a passion to go out there and be visible," said Docekal. "It was about saving your life and you just had to be out there," added Smith. Both of them also said that the early Pride marches were organized more for defending Gay rights and about building a movement to make that happen, as well as protesting the Vietnam War. Which meant the early marchers had both Queer folks and those who were there protesting the war as well, marching side by side. The two also talked of some early splits, as others in the community begin to have differences of opinion on what the marches should be like. "There was a split between the GSBA and The Stonewall Committee, because the GSBA didn't want the march to have anything to do with supporting people with AIDS and the Stonewall Committee wanted to address the issues of people with AIDS -- this was when AIDS was still fairly new to the community and no one really wanted to talk about it, in the early eighties," said Smith. The two groups decided to discuss what might be acceptable to both, as well as to the public, who by then wanted both a march and a celebration to be part of Pride events. Votes were made on who the speakers would be and where the march would be held. "It was to be held in Freeway Park. And during the planning for the the next one, which was when the FDC was formed, there was another split of opinions over how Pride should proceed, and members of the Dorian Group walked out of the meeting with the FDC. They said they wanted a more political march, but what they wanted was one involving the Democratic Party more, because they were supporting the Democrats," said Smith. Docekal added that, back then, the FDC and Stonewall Committees, believing in equal representation, had Black speakers, (Perry Watkins was an early speaker), feminist speakers and Native American speakers. "The march in '82 was dedicated to people with AIDS. The more conservative groups are the people who did the Pride Festival, and they wouldn't let us distribute any AIDS literature at the festival," said Smith. "The issue of AIDS split the community in '85, but we still had a very successful march, because people remembered the split in '84 and people were ready to support different communities more than they had, and to support people with AIDS," added Smith. Docekal, reflecting on the new splits around Seattle Out and Proud and the efforts to take Pride downtown, had this to say: "Underlying this is a political agenda. Radical Women has looked at several questions over the last year. Who has been open to the community? Who is willing to have their books looked at by the public? Who is willing to give back to the community? That's why we support the Saturday march," she said. She also said that she felt these issues would not go away, and needed to have a public forum to be addressed by the community, with everyone having a chance to have their say on what Pride should look like and be like next year and in coming years. "But, it has to be really democratic and let everyone speak," added Smith. Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party will also be involved in the Dyke March, as well as QueerFest this year. |
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