Articles about Capital City Pride
Capital City Pride 2023 – Embracing Sustainability, Diversity and Community Growth – invites individuals from all walks of life to gather at the Tivoli Fountain on the Capitol Campus at 9 a.m. July 1 for a day of solidarity and positive protest.
The rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, with text by John Cameron Mitchell and music and lyrics by Stephen Trask, started as a performance in drag clubs and became an international phenomenon. It’s now playing at the State Theater of Olympia’s Harlequin Productions, starring Adam Rennie as Hedwig and Mandy Rose Nichøls as Hedwig’s husband and assistant, Yitzhak.
By Jonah Barrett “On December fifth, you’re going to be razzle dazzled,” exclaimed activist and drag performer Tammie Brown. It’s true: Brown and a number of drag performers will grace the Octapas Café stage. Soon making her Olympia debut, Brown gained prominent notoriety in 2009 when she appeared on the first season of RuPaul’s Drag …
By Molly Walsh On Sunday, June 23, thousands of members of the LGBTQ community and their supporters convened on downtown Olympia to celebrate Pride. It was the largest parade on record, according to Capital City Pride Coordinator Gina Thompson. Accompanying the parade at Heritage Park were over 100 booths of local organizations, artisan crafts and …
By JONAH BARRETT Growing up LGBTQ+ can be a challenge. Queer youth face a number of difficulties, like developing straight crushes, teachers using the wrong pronouns, even not being accepted by their families. It’s a tough journey, but it isn’t all gloom and doom. Two major nonprofit organizations are helping LGBTQ+ youth get a leg …
By JONAH BARRETT Intersectionality is not a new word — it was first coined by black, feminist scholar Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw in 1989 to describe how discussions of feminism and racism often left out black women — but it’s recently made its way into the mainstream vernacular. At least that’s true in queer spaces, especially …
By CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL Back in 1991, the population of Olympia was seven-tenths of what it is now, and stunning social paradigm shifts remained over the visible horizon. Legal, same-sex marriage in Washington State was a generation away — yet our town was already demonstrating its support of what came to be known as the queer …
By MOLLY GILMORE With her bright smile and warm personality, Jacque Dennee-Lee — who’ll serve as marshal of the Capital City Pride Parade on June 23 — helped many in Olympia find comfort with LGBTQ+ people. Dennee-Lee (whose first name is pronounced “Jackie”) worked from the early 1980s to 2010 as a bus driver with …
By ALEC CLAYTON This year’s Capital City Pride award for activist of the year goes to Cameron Combs, activist, trans man, writer and president of the Pizza Klatch board of directors. Combs grew up in Thurston County and went to Tumwater schools. “I know firsthand,” says Combs, “what it’s like to be an LGBTQ+ youth …
By CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL The Yiddish-American word klatch, which can rhyme with either batch or botch, means an informal gathering, usually one that facilitates conversation. Pizza Klatch is an Olympia-based organization that empowers LGBTQ+ youth in Thurston County by providing safe, supportive spaces — and yes, free pizza — in 15 area schools. It’s the result …