“You can tell a history, a historical narrative, but you can also tell a spatial story of where people claimed space,” says Brown.
Accompanying text describes the relevance of each site. Using these oral histories, as well as other historical information, Brown and Larry Knopp of the University of Minnesota-Duluth have created an exhaustive map of more than 200 key sites in Seattle’s gay and lesbian history. The sites of these memories-“the where-ness of things,” as Brown puts it-add another dimension to the story. Or renting an apartment in a building that welcomed gay tenants, creating a sense of community. Those interviewed have described entering a gay bar for the first time, when being “outed” could mean the loss of a job or family. Michael Brown talks to a tour participant about gay and lesbian history in Seattle. Brown and others have collected scores of oral histories, each adding more detail to the story of the gay and lesbian experience in Seattle. Brown, UW professor of geography, has spent more than a decade researching Seattle’s gay and lesbian history as a volunteer for the Northwest Lesbian & Gay History Museum Project.
