One of the first non-bar gay and lesbian spaces in Seattle, the Gay Community Center opened its doors in 1972 at First and Cherry in Pioneer Square. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, that began to change as the era of gay liberation came into full swing.

While the simple act of patronizing a drag bar, or wearing butch clothes might have been a political act, few gay spaces explicitly announced themselves as such. While places like the Garden of Allah may have been known to some straight people, the lesbian and gay community was for the most part very discreet. In the 1940s, 50s and 60s, gay and lesbian Seattle was more or less underground.