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Looking back in SGN history: The very first issues

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The front page of March 1974 issue.  

Dive into the archives of the SGN at https://issuu.com/sgn.org

Progress Report, Budget & Financial Statement
GAY COMMUNITY CENTER [SEATTLE GAY NEWS]
MARCH 1974


To the Gay Community:

We have acquired a building. After four months of weekly meetings and countless hours of additional work by group members, our efforts are showing tangible results.

The building is located at 1726-16th Ave., between Howell and Olive Streets. It is within one block of the #10-Capital [sic] Hill trolley line and within four blocks of the #4 Montlake and the #13-19th Ave.

It is a large house which has been broken down into five separate apartments, three downstairs and two upstairs. It also has a good size half-basement. The three downstairs apartments and the basement are connected and will be the center proper. The upstairs rear apartment will be rented to a member of the community to help with costs, and the front upstairs will be used for meeting and office space, and someday maybe a VD clinic.

The building should be ready by late April or sooner if work goes smoothly. Tentative plans for the main plan include: 1) a living room-TV room furnished with sofas and lounge chairs. This room has a fireplace; 2) a pool-table room, maybe with soft drink and candy machines; 3) a library. The half-basement could be used for a coffee-shop-art gallery. No definite plans have as yet been made. All decisions are being made by the group which has been meeting regularly. This group is open to the entire community. [...]

The Gay Community Center has been operating under Gay Community Social Services, a non-profit corporation. This is the same corporation which formed to operate the Community Center in Pioneer Square. However, Gay Community Social Services is also involved in a number of projects which do not relate directly to the Community Center. In order to permit the focus of energies into the Community Center, a new corporation is being formed solely involved with the maintenance of the Community Center. This new corporation is Seattle Gay Community Center [...]

This article was edited for length. To view the article in full, go to https://issuu.com/sgn.org/docs/sgn_march_1974

The front page of June 1974 issue.  

Gay Pride Week '74
GAY COMMUNITY CENTER [SEATTLE GAY NEWS]
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1
JUNE 1974


The Gay Pride Week planning coalition, made up of men and women from across the community, has come up with a lot of exciting ideas. The celebration will begin Friday, June 28th, and end Sunday June 30th.

The tentative plans start out with the grand opening of the Gay Community Center on Friday evening with a potluck dinner. Evenings [sic] entertainment will include informal music by various lesbian women and gay male artists, a presentation by Puppet-power, and a poetry reading by Kathryn.

Saturday afternoon a potluck picnic downtown at Occidental Square will include 'gay'rilla theater, balloons, butch/fem T-shirts, and a kissing booth. The big event of the three-day week-end will be a street dance. Hopefully, this will also be at Occidental Square on Saturday evening. Every ten minutes during the dance a representative of each of the lesbian and gay groups in Seattle will be given a one-minute time slot to talk about their organization. (If they go over one minute they will be hooked off the stage.)

Sunday afternoon, we'll truck on over to the Seattle Center for singing, general carousing, and a gay-in at the fountain. [...]

Housing for out-of-towners, and childcare will be provided through the [Community] Center.

This article was edited for length. To view the article in full, go to https://issuu.com/sgn.org/docs/june_1974

Note: Although the second article is from "Vol. 1, Issue 1," the preceding article, dated March 1974, is from what is considered to be the first issue, before anyone likely realized this would be a regular publication. The transition from newsletter to newspaper format, including the rebrand to Seattle Gay News, occurred some time between 1975 and 1977.