It’s been one hell of a week. Last weekend, WSLCB & SPD raided 4 gay bars, supposedly expecting to find some like, truly awful activity. Instead, they saw… a nipple, and jockstraps. We, the community, reacted strongly to these events. Actions like this have often been used to quell our freedoms in other cities, and the Seattle Eagle has had similar raids in the past. Even though this weekend’s “enforcement actions” didn’t ultimately result in citations being issued, they were still a threat to the whole community. In the absence of a robust response, they would have been emboldened to cause more problems for us.
Well, the community delivered in spades on the response. Tuesday’s meeting of the Liquor & Cannabis Board did not have a public comment section, but it was attended virtually by over 400 people. During it, the chairman seemed to be disappointed he was even having to address an issue about “lewd conduct”, and they spent a great deal of time on the formulation of their new mission statement; the wording about public health and safety was extremely important to them.
As a follow-up to the initial meeting, people brought statements on Wednesday, to the tune of 2+ hours of comment. A common theme was how the community could not accept that these were “normal visits”, when there were police shining flashlights on people, spotlighting their attire and then taking photographs. Likewise, the community pushed back heavily on the concept that the LCB was doing anything to improve the health and safety of the LGBTQ+ patrons of these bars; taking photos, which would need to be published, is a great way to out people who aren’t out in their private lives and instead thrust them into public view. As one man–a Marine veteran from the DADT days–said, he was able to get out with his honor intact, but there weren’t people going into the bars and taking photos. By the end of it, I got the feeling that the board was regretting having spent so much time on their mission statement the day before.
(If you don’t feel like watching the whole thing–which is understandable–Vivian McCall at The Stranger did an excellent write-up, and @nullagent@partyon.xyz live-commented both sessions.)
The week culminated in WSLCB pausing enforcement of the “Lewd Conduct” rule. This pause went into effect Thursday night, and by Saturday folks had realized how they wanted to approach this new environment.
One of the funnier side effects of all this to me is the rapid changes to the dress code section of the website for one of the bars in town. The dress code had a “recenly updated” notice on it for a few days, stating that bare butts wouldn’t be allowed; that disappeared within a day of the WSLCB rule change. Jockstraps were back on the allowed list, and a whole lot more besides.
Expectation within a minority culture
What makes a queer bar? What’s “acceptable behavior” really, and how does a historically marginalized community with a culture sometimes standing at odds with the majority culture around it navigate these unsteady waters?
First, I’m going to address the definition of the space. A queer bar is a space operated by, for, and on behalf of any subset of the queer community. Slapping a flag on the door is one thing; having gay, lesbian, or trans staff, and running events catering to those communities’ interests is a more concrete example of doing this. Hosting community group event nights, for instance, is a way to build association with the community. In the case of The Cuff, they’ve hosted SEA-PAH, the Seattle Pups & Handlers, for years. Both The Cuff and the Seattle Eagle host circuit parties, underwear nights, and kink events, all of which cater heavily to the gay community.
Next, let’s take a moment to talk about the social mores of gay spaces and gay events. I think it’d be good to talk about what makes a space uniqutely gay or not, and how it differs from a straight space. One notable difference is the degree of physical contact we see in gay bars and gay communities. If you’re having a conversation with someone at a gay bar, you’re almost always going to end up touching arms, shoulders, and possibly more as a part of the conversation. We’re a touchy bunch–always with consent, and that’s not okay to breach–and we tend to like to have a lot of contact. Along with that heightened contact, there’s an overall acceptance of showing a lot of skin at a gay bar. At an event with a lot of bears, it’s rare to see shirts stay on, just because it’s a lot more fun to be shirtless; this, combined with the aforementioned touchiness, results in a lot of belly-rubbing.
Lastly, there’s a question of sexual appetites and community standards. A bar creates an environment where everybody’s at least 21, and when you combine people with mutual attractions in a safe space to express those attractions, some folks tend to want to express it in a more explicit fashion. Where gay culture veers radically away from straight culture is, sex in a public, but limited space, isn’t really seen as offensive to encounter, and certainly doesn’t rise to the level of causing alarm. When looking at the definition used in Washington for indecent exposure, for instance, being naked in a gay bar isn’t going to cause a reasonable patron affront or alarm; we can see dicks on the TV monitors, why can’t we see them on the people around us? And once it’s out, and given that we’re a touchy bunch… why not play with them, while we’re at it?
So, we get back to the core issue: the WSLCB’s rules are written from a majority culture standpoint, which sees sexuality as something to be ashamed of and hidden (at least in their stated rules) while gay culture celebrates it and incorporates it into the commonplace experiences of the bar. This is part of what makes the gay bar such a core place in our cultural expression; it’s a little, walled-off environment where we exist in isolation from the surrounding culture, allowing us our free expression in an environment without shame or external interference.
Collision of expectations, and where we go next
It’ll be interesting to see how the next few weeks play out. With the pause on the WSLCB’s lewd conduct rule, Fetish Night at one bar got a lot more wild–but really, in ways that are absolutely in keeping with the culture I described. There were by far more jockstraps than usual on attendees, and a number took the opportunity to disrobe completely (barring boots) for the evening. There was a sort of jubilance to the night, and a sense of “getting away with something” that … we’ll see if it sticks around.
The real issue is that while there are actual concerns–things like overservice, improper ID checks–these seem to have been ignored for weird moralistic issues like a bartender’s nipple. We as a community can’t trust that the LCB will do their actual job if they’re so busy trying to moralize to us about how our community should operate, and pursue weird vendettas. If they take their loss and learn from it, and don’t attempt to retaliate, maybe we can start working on a trusting relationship. Unfortunately, that all remains up in the air, and the LCB will be starting from a deeply negative position in regards to the community’s trust in them.
I would appreciate a less antagonistic relationship with regulators, for the community as a whole. They’ve got a lot of growing to do first.