The “blueprint” for the new new Gay City — “Some of the exciting features include:”
Room 100 – Youth Space (middle)
Room 106 – Community Organization Partner TBA (middle bottom)
Room 107 – Large Meeting Space/Rental Area (middle bottom)
Room 121 & 122 – Pharmacy (upper right)
Room 133 – Library with new furniture (lower left)

Gay City is saying goodbye to Pike, hello to Pine (Image: Gay City)

There will be a Pride Place on Broadway — and a Gay City on E Pine.

Gay City, the LGBTQ center serving Seattle for 26 years displaced from its E Pike location last year by planned development, is staying on Capitol Hill in a new home that will allow the nonprofit to continue to expand its services.

“We’re trying to really want to step further into who we are,” Gay City’s Melvin Givens tells CHS. “We want to make sure that Seattle has that LGBTQ center that’s really located on Capitol Hill and easily accessible.”

Gay City’s new home on the ground floor of the Pine Bellevue office building at 400 E Pine will have room for an expanded slate of services and offerings at the center including a new pharmacy in partnership with Kelley-Ross. At the core of the facility, Givens said the new Gay City location will center around a new service added to its mix with a new “Youth Space” in the middle of the new center.

“We wanted to expand the agency so we could introduce some new, exciting features,” Givens said. “Like our dedicated youth space — they can own that space, be themselves, commune, get to know each.”

CHS reported here in 2020 on Gay City’s closure during the pandemic and its need to move from its E Pike home to make way for planned redevelopment of the block. Here’s how that eight-story, auto row-inspired mixed-use development is shaping up, by the way.

“I’m surrounded by brilliant people at work who care a lot about LGBTQ folks, so I’m sure we’ll land somewhere great,” Gay City director Fred Swanson said at the time.

The old E Pike space (Image: CHS)

(Image: Gay City)

Gay City formed out of the mid-1990s closure of the city’s lone major LGBTQ community center and has continued to serve as a centerpoint for queer communities across the city as times and needs have changed. In 2018, Gay City expanded its library and continued to make space for fellow LGBTQ nonprofits to share the space.

It is, of course, also serving a changing Capitol Hill and changing LGBTQ communities in the neighborhood — even as important spaces change or leave the Hill. More help is coming. The Pride Place LGBTQ-affirming senior housing development has broken ground on Broadway and is planned to be open with its new apartments and services by 2023.

After the challenges of the pandemic and the move out of E Pike, Gay City hopes to reopen in its new space before the end of the year, Givens said. There will be a campaign to help raise funds for the move and preparing the new space — city permits indicate a construction budget at more than $220,000 — but, for now, you can donate directly to Gay City if you would like to help.

There are also more responsibilities on the horizon and community missions for Gay City to serve. Givens said the nonprofit is stepping forward to help steward the new AIDS Memorial Pathway stretching across Capitol Hill Station’s plaza and Cal Anderson Park.

“Our future is looking very, very bright,” Givens said.

Gay City plans to open at 400 E Pine by “winter.” You can learn more at gaycity.org.

$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE THIS SPRING
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻 
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 👍