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Characterized as wild and bawdy, the Garden was like home to many of its patrons, fostering a sense of community and family among gays and lesbians in Seattle. The Garden's shows attracted men and women, gay and straight, and often featured nationally recognized performers. Entertainment at the Garden included vaudeville, burlesque, and variety shows with female impersonators as its main attraction. The Garden of Allah, Seattle's first gay-owned gay bar, was located in the basement of the Arlington Hotel at Post and Seneca from 1946 to 1956. Partly because of this injunction, women were able to dance together at the Madison. In 1958, MacIver Wells, owner of the Madison, sought and was granted a court injunction against police harassing his customers.
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While strict Blue Laws governed all the city's bars, both gay and straight, these laws were often used selectively by police to harass gay bars and to demand payoffs. Though men made up most of the clientele, some bars catered especially to women, including the Silver Slipper, the Submarine Room, and the Madison Tavern. This birthplace of Seattle's gay community was the location for many of the earliest gay bars, bathhouses, and other spaces. The gay community was a part of the wave of individuals who wound up calling Pioneer Square home, and until the 1970s Pioneer Square was the heart of gay and lesbian Seattle. As this happened, the area also became identified for providing services for people on the edges of Seattle society. By the 1930s, the term “Skid Row” was part of the national vocabulary, replacing the original reference to Henry Yesler’s “Skid Road” for the lumber mill. Contrary to stereotype, he said, same-sex couples earn on average $15,000 less annually than opposite sex households.At the turn of the 19th century, Pioneer Square was the heart of Seattle’s downtown, but as the city grew, the downtown core drifted north and over time, Pioneer Square became a less desirable place. Ghaziani listed two reasons gayborhoods are losing their edge: Gays and lesbians are being priced out. One sociologist characterized lesbians as the “canaries in the urban coal mine.” Lesbians, he said, typically pave the way. Ghaziani said gays and lesbians have often been involved in the early stages of urban revitalization or renewal. The 1970s and 1980s marked a moment in time that demographers refer to as the Great Gay Migration. These areas flourished some decades later following the Stonewall riots of 1969.
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“Gayborhoods in the United States first formed following World War II,” he said, “when gay men and lesbians who were discharged from the military as a result of their real or perceived homosexuality decided to remain behind in major urban centers rather than returning home disgraced.” Amin Ghaziani, an associate professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia, has analyzed the changing role of gay neighborhoods in his new book, "There Goes the Gayborhood.” Ghaziani said gayborhoods began as refuges for LGBT people from heterosexual culture.