♪♪
(energetic music)
♪♪
[SHELLEY] I didn’t actually come out until I was in my early twenties.
I was like 22.
I knew I was gay before that
pretty much, but I just hadn't come out yet.
I don't know why I waited.
It was just I grew up in upstate New York and it wasn't a real
conducive place for anything other than straight,
white, middle class people.
The only thing that was in the closet was my work.
That was the only place I had to be in the closet.
I actually lost a job
because they found out I was gay.
When I first came in this area,
I got to Broadway and there was a gay mall and there was Broadway Market.
And it was gay.
And it was it was a wonderful place to land in.
- Shortly after I
moved to Seattle, I came out.
I hadn't had a girlfriend or anything.
So I actually
began to realize that it was a possibility to have a relationship with a woman.
So when I began to
date women, everything
with the uniqueness of this bar kind of came with it.
I applied here because in my effort to get closer and get kind of
to come out, I, I thought, Oh, that's the way to do that.
So it's just kind of a blur.
That's what
I remember being in here in between like, Oh my gosh, this is a lesbian bar.
And I see people whispering outside where they go by now.
And I'm just like, really?
It's 2015, But they're like
(whisper) that’s a lesbian bar.
It kills me because I just I have to remember it was something
exotic and new. - Closer and closer and we love you Bryer.
(crowded bar)
(applause)
[SHELLEY] When the Wild Rose started, it was started as a safe place for women.
And it's always continued that way.
In the beginning days, it was very anti male.
There was just such a dividing line
between gay women and straight males. Gay males, even.
Coming in the bar it was like, Cheers, you know, like,
Hey, how you doing?
Everybody knew each other pretty much.
And, you know, fairly tight community.
When you walked outside, you were back into the real world.
So it was like, Ooh, what's going to happen?
Am I going to get called dyke?
Am I going to
get knocked down?
Am I going to get punched or you just
no one really knew what was going to happen.
[MARTHA] When the bar opened, there were the gay bars were more like speakeasies.
They were dark, darkened windows.
They were in the back there, in the alleyways.
They weren't in your face.
And this is right here on Pike Street.
And the windows are open. We keep them open.
We don't put a lot of things on the window because we want people to see in
and we want to see out.
We're not hiding.
(singing karaoke)
[SHELLEY] I'm sure, to
a middle aged straight male
from Kansas, it was over the top.
To us it wasn't over the top.
It was it was just having fun.
(driving club music)
(applause)
(singing karaoke)
[MARTHA] It’s sort of like a community cen in a lot of ways.
And it's important to a lot of people.
And I forget that.
And I'm reminded of it with things like people that come in to celebrate
their anniversary or, you know, show us pictures of their children or so.
I mean, it's really it is a unique place and it's a special place
and it's a historic place.
And so I do I do think of that a lot.
(singing karaoke)
- Were are we in that process?
- It's interesting question.
Well, we...
we’re engaged.
We got engaged. Yay!
♪♪
I wanted to not look like a freak.
I wanted to look like I belonged.
But I didn't feel like I looked like I belonged.
I mean, I remember I was 25 newly out, and I was like,
do I fit in here?
Are they going to look at me and come up to me and go
“excuse me you don't belong” and kick me out
and just kind of say like, “you're not, this isn’t your space.
So I didn't.
I was basically looking to not get kicked out
when I walked in here.
- And I think I was glad to come here
because I wanted her to stop having such an idea of what all lesbians
look like and that she clearly wasn't fitting the mold.
So we came here and saw that.
Now there's a lot of different types of people here, and you do fit the mold
just by being you.
- I was worried I couldn't pluck my eyebrows.
I looked around, I figured out I could still do that.
I mean, it was just a lot of like, I'm okay
♪♪
[SHELLEY] Softball was a big part of the lesbian community
because it was a place where people could gather all in one space
in public, not being in a bar, and you didn't get so many problems.
And so I think that's why softball became so big in the lesbian community
to begin with.
It was it was like an alternative to the bar.
♪♪
[SHELLEY] A couple of years ago,
our patrons came to us and they said, we want to do a team.
And they're really good team and they play their little hearts out.
(laughing)
and they come here and have fun.
(cheering)
♪♪
[SHELLEY] Pride is my favorite time of the
For me, it means I get to turn a 2800 square foot
bar into a 20,000 square foot bar for three days,
and I can move around without actually getting elbowed in the face.
Pride is
a way for us to give back to the community.
Pride gives everyone the chance to get together
and not so much hash out their differences,
but not care about their differences and just have fun together.
Good for $200, ten, 20, 30.
(applause)
- I want you guys to try to get to the floor
I see the enthusiasm.
- Then we're going to Ashley.
(cheers)
- I don't even know.
[SHELLEY] Everybody came out and it was probably the happiest pride
I've seen in many, many years where
just everybody was in a good mood.
[MARTHA] People were just beaming.
It really felt like people were so,
so happy and positive.
(marching music)
[MARTHA] It's funny because people complain that has become more mainstream.
Well, that that's what happens with movements when,
you know, the tide changes politically and people's opinions change.
You're getting other people on board.
It's not that they're taking it over.
I mean, I think if they're celebrating something that's happened and the history
and the struggle, that's great.
That's a success. You know?
(singing and cheering)
(contemplative music)
[SHELLEY] I think one of the biggest thing right now
that's happening in Seattle is the change of Capitol Hill.
And the thing I believe more than anything is it can only change if we let it.
I think people have to keep in mind that
if we want Capitol Hill to be gay, then the gay people have to be up here.
So we can't be intimidated
by the crowds coming in
that we think are not gay friendly.
(contemplative music)
[MARTHA] We did the task force with the mayor and Shelley
always has her ear to the ground about what's going on.
And I think it's very important, the idea of branding the Hill,
just reminding people
it may not have been the first gay area in the city,
but it really became the place that people identified with the queer community.
(contemplative music)
(cheering)
- I see the edges of you soft and curved,
and it makes me want to travel you, unravel you.
I have lived over you for almost a lifetime, and now
my mornings are full of those memories.
Breakfast is like scrambled eggs and homemade
jam dripping off the mountainside of your
“Good mornings.”
When we eat breakfast, it was like you were sopping up the voids
and the galaxies we lost ourselves inside of last night.
Within your salted grits and sour blueberries.
But if it wasn't for breakfast, I'd never know how it felt
to be the most important part of your day.
(applause)
[SHELLEY] We've always tried to be
a lesbian bar where lesbians always feel comfortable,
but without discriminating against other people to make it happen.
[MARTHA] We wanted to keep it
a safe place for women and try to keep that and then balance that
with welcoming anybody that wanted to come in and be appropriate.
- I want to be you.
I am you.
I'm not you.
I want to know how to love you.
Thank you.
(applause)
[SHELLEY] It's a struggle.
Every day is a struggle.
Lesbian bars have always been a struggle
They always will be.
And there's a variety of reasons for that. But...
we would never sacrifice
what the Wildrose stands for to make money.
[MARTHA] If nothing else.
You know, it serves to educate younger folks in the LGBTQ
community that there were needs for things for places like this.
And we weren't always, you know, as safe.
I mean, I just can't believe the progress.
It just seems to have taken a huge uptick in the last year.
I didn't know that all of these things that are
that are occurring would happen so quickly.
And in my lifetime, even.
[SHELLEY] If gay marriage hadn’t passed,
I probably would have run out of tissues from people.
We wouldn't have been able to console everybody.
You know,
hopefully we'll be here in 30 years and hopefully this building will be here.
But we'll see. It's a changin’.
(laughs)
(energetic dance music)