OLYMPIA, Wash. — The Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) received a $75,000 grant from the National Park Service to survey important sites in Washington state’s LGBTQ+ history. The project is part of an ongoing effort by state and federal leaders to preserve and learn more about the histories of diverse and marginalized communities.
The money comes from the National Park Service’s Underrepresented Communities grant program, which doled out more than $1.25 million to projects nationwide. The program is intended to diversify the National Register of Historic Places to better reflect “the important places and significant stories of all Americans.”
Dr. Allyson Brooks, director of the DAHP, explained that the grant money will go toward identifying local properties that may not be historic in the way people conventionally think about it.
“Traditionally when you think of historic preservation and historic places as maybe a Victorian home, or an art deco home, or maybe a special park, and we have places of historical significance that aren’t always seen as, I’m going to put it in quotes, ‘traditional’ type places,” Brooks said.
The types of locations the department is looking for encompass a range of possibilities, including significant buildings, offices or parks where civil rights work was done, night clubs or other types of clubs. The survey does have to comply with federal guidelines, meaning the locations have to be at least 50 years old, and they have to look the same way they did during the period of their importance.
Brooks said the survey will help raise educational awareness about Washington state history from the perspective of the LGBTQ+ community, and also protect those locations for the future. The survey will put them on the radar of land use and transportation planners so they know to avoid construction in those areas.
“We want to be careful that these places of importance can be avoided or that harm can be minimized or mitigated,” Brooks said.
The Washington State LGBTQ Commission submitted a letter of support alongside the DAHP’s grant application, calling the project “a crucial endeavor that will undoubtedly contribute to a more inclusive and comprehensive understanding of Washington's cultural heritage.”
“The LGBTQ community has a long history in Washington, particularly in the Puget Sound area, so actually having some funding to highlight that and maybe pursue getting some of the spaces on a National Register would be a tremendous opportunity in our state,” said Sheri Sawyer, interim director of the state LGBTQ Commission.
Sawyer said work to document the history of the state’s LGBTQ community is especially timely, considering a rash of anti-LGBTQ sentiment specifically targeting trans people across the country.
“Unless one learns about the history, and it’s not always a great history right, we’re doomed to repeat ourselves from the mistakes we’ve made in the past, so I think it’s really important to document the discrimination that went on, particularly during the AIDS epidemic,” Sawyer said. “We’re experiencing an uptick in LGBTQ hate crimes, specifically related to trans people, so we need to learn from our mistakes and we can’t do that unless we document what happened and educate folks.”