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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
THEATER REVIEW by Christian Carvajal for OLY ARTS What an inspiring, majestic mountain director Lauren Love scaled with her production of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America at South Puget Sound Community College. This monumental script is over a quarter-century old […]
The following recommended reading list was provided by Orca Books in Olympia for Pride Week coverage in OLY ARTS. Orca Books is the largest independent bookstore in Olympia, Washington, located in the heart of downtown’s vibrant shopping district. Aristotle and […]
