Broadway's bars, bookstores, and coffee shops mark Capitol Hill, Seattle's most culturally electric neighborhood and the city's LGBTQ hub since the 1970s. Broadway Avenue, the neighborhood's main commercial strip, was lined with gay bars, community organizations, and support services for LGBTQ residents in an era when such spaces were rare and sometimes dangerous. Seattle has had a legally recognized LGBTQ community since at least the 1950s; the Dorian Society, founded in 1967, was one of the first homophile organizations in the Northwest.
Capitol Hill hosted Seattle's first Pride march in 1974. Today the neighborhood is home to Cal Anderson Park, the Broadway Performance Hall, the Egyptian Theatre, and a density of late-night options that draws people from across the region. The neighborhood's demographics have shifted as rents have risen — a familiar story — but the community organizations, the Pride flags in the windows, and the energy of Broadway on a Saturday night still signal what this place has been and still aspires to be.
Seattle was one of the first cities in the country to elect an openly gay official to a city-wide position; the political culture of Capitol Hill made that possible.