IN and OUT exhibit celebrates the island community’s earlyembrace of LGBTQ people

LGBTQIA+ History Vashon Island’s Long, Quiet LGBTQ History Comes Out

IN and OUT exhibit celebrates the island community’s early embrace of LGBTQ people

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Southworth (near Port Orchard) and Tacoma’s Point Defiance, rural Vashon Island has a population of only about 10,000 fullof a school-based Gay-Straight Alliance (now called the Queer Spectrum Alliance), becoming the school’s largest club. And time residents—it also has the state’s highest for many years, the Seattle Men’s Chorus percentage of LGBTQ heads of households held its annual retreats at Camp Burton on the island’s south end. according to the last two census records. “The story of how Vashon’s LGBTQIA+ community became such an integral part of the larger Island community is a story that needs to be widely shared,” said Bruce Haulman, Vashon-Maury Island His

While Vashon has the highest per capita population of LGBTQ torical Association board member and noted local historian. “It’s people in the state (and one of the highest in the country), it a story of what’s possible when neighbors get to know neighdoesn’t have a cohesive queer community the likes of Capitol Hill bors and the shackles of fear, prejudice, and LGBTQIA+-phobia or other gay enclaves. Instead, the island has long been home are shattered. No place is perfect, and we still have a long way to an assortment of families, individuals, artists, entrepreneurs, to go, but the Vashon example is a model for acceptance that gardeners, chefs, organizers and public servants who identify any community can accomplish.” themselves as LGBTQIA+. As a result, Vashon’s quiet LGBTQIA+ Haulman’s hope for telling the island’s story materialized when history has largely gone unknown outside of the 80-square-mile the Vashon-Maury Island Historical Association, which runs the island community. local museum, opened the exhibit, IN and OUT: Being LGBTQ on

Despite the low profile, Vashon has been a haven for queer artVashon Island. The popular exhibit, scheduled to run through ists, musicians, authors, performers and activists including poet June, explores the rich history of LGBTQIA+ people on Vashon Isand filmmaker James Broughton (1913–1999) the subject of the land—their challenges, contributions and visions. award-winning documentary Big Joy produced on Vashon, was IN and OUT is co-curated by Ellen Kritzman and Stephen Silha, known for attending queer Thanksgiving parties on the island. who worked alongside Haulman with support from a commu

The community has also been at the forefront of equal rights nity advisory board. Kritzman and Silha interviewed more than for its LGBTQIA+ friends and neighbors. In 1979, an island resident 25 people, spoke with old-time Islanders, issued a questionnaire established the Tacoma Lesbian Concern, the oldest, continuasking about LGBTQIA+ life, assembled a multi-generational ously operating lesbian organization serving south Puget Sound. advisory committee, and holding “story circles” for LGBTQIA+ In the early 1990s, Vashon’s collective coming out began with community members who wanted to share their personal a small group of LGBTQIA+ members, called Vashon Friends of journeys. Stonewall. With postcards sent around town requesting, “come In preparation they researched articles and family histories, out, come out, whoever you are,” the group still exists as Vashon searched for film and videos, and gathered multiple photos, artiPride Alliance. In 2006 Vashon High School was an early adopter facts and cultural ephemera to create a powerful and compelling

PEOPLE. PASSION. PEOPLE. PASSION. PRIDE. PRIDE.

Happy Pride from all of us at BECU. Happy Pride from all of us at BECU.

The IN and OUT: journey through LGBTQ life on Vashon Being LGBTQ on over the decades.

Vashon Island exhibit at the Vashon-Maury Island Historical

“It has been an enormous privilege to have folks be willing to be fully out of the closet, and open up their lives Association is to us. We hope we’ve made the exhibit available for interesting and impactful for everyviewing online at one, gay and straight and everywhere Vashon-Pride.com/ on the spectrum,” Kritzman and Silha tour-the-exhibit wrote in their curators’ statement. They added, “Along the way, we found many folks believe it’s important we create opportunities to come together and celebrate as a cohesive community.”

The exhibit includes a timeline of LGBTQ milestones, an AIDS memorial garden, a display curated by the Queer Spectrum Alliance, and a honeycomb of stories about the island’s queer history which honors the very first island residents, the sHebabS people, noting many indigenous cultures honored Two Spirit members within their societies. Living and loving in gender fluidity and same-sex relationships, they were revered by their communities, playing crucial roles in ceremonial and daily life until European colonization.

The exhibit opens with River of Gold, a poem by the late artist, gay historian and Vashon resident Don Paulson, calligraphed by artist Gordon R. Barnett. Paulson recorded his life and others’ in paintings, drawings, books, letters and archives now housed at the University of Washington and at MOHAI. Paulson penned the gay history column for Seattle Gay News for many years and contributed to the Northwest Lesbian & Gay History Museum Project. Other materials came from the archives of the Vashon Gay Pride Alliance and other islanders.

Many of the personal stories and photos were used for the exhibit, along with several artifacts. One such artifact was the disco ball from Shelly’s Leg, an early gay bar in Seattle’s Pioneer Square which eventually became Tugs when it moved to Capitol Hill, where Madonna danced under it when she was in town filming ALeague of Their Own. Earlier, when it hung at Tootsie’s Vintage Clothing Store, it is said that k.d. lang, Curt Cobain, Courtney Love, Chris Isaac, Wynona Ryder, Joe Jackson and Dale

Chihuly shopped under it. The ball has since lived on Vashon for many years, in an islander’s attic.

Some other aspects of the exhibit were more painful, such as stories of hate crimes toward islanders, including the shooting death of the dogs of the town’s first female newspaper editor, who moved to Vashon in 1947 with her then samesex partner. As recently as the 1990s, a

Vashon Gay Pride Alliance street sign was defaced and had to be replaced—serving as an important reminder that the march continues everywhere for equality, acceptance and inclusion.

A dedicated corps of volunteer advisors and curators worked together to create IN and OUT with the goal of helping each visitor step into the experience of living as an LGBTQIA+ person on Vashon, and highlighted both the joyful and painful parts of that experience over decades. IN and OUT illuminates a hidden part of history, one that challenges viewer perceptions and opens minds.

The exhibit will run through June 2020 (depending on state COVID guidance) and can be experienced online at vashonpride.com/tour-the-exhibit. u

Equality is the foundation on which healthy communities are built. This year’s celebration may look a bit different, but distance doesn’t change the support we provide the community through our care. We’re proud to be here with you, today and always.