SEATTLE — Seattle Pride unveiled a new historical marker Tuesday at the site of the city's first Pride celebration in Occidental Square park.
The marker includes a timeline of significant events in local LGBTQ+ history and is part of the Alliance for Pioneer Square's "Trail to Treasure" walking tour, which celebrates people and places that have shaped Seattle.
Several organizers of the first Pride event in 1974 were on hand to reveal the marker, including David Neth, who said the first Pride was a truly historical moment.
"It was a statement to be out there in the daylight instead of in the bars or hiding in our closets, and to show the rest of the city or country the joy we feel as people," Neth said.
KING 5 spoke with Neth in June, as Seattle celebrated the 50th anniversary of Seattle Pride.
The marker was designed by Seattle-based agency "People People" and is meant to educate all who walk by about the origin of Pride, local LGBTQ+ history, and Pioneer Square's history offering places for queer Seattlites to find community. The idea to add the marker surfaced during a "Beneath the Streets Queer Underground History Tour" last year.
Neth says a lot of progress has been made since 1974, and he has been encouraged to see Seattle Pride grow. But he says the work isn't over.
"In the arc of history, we come and go with progressive and regressive ideas and this time in history, it's kind of scary," Neth said. "Some people need to be on the alert and aware you don't rewrite our history and take us out of the books and ban us, basically. The focus now on transgender people is troubling because that's what we went through in the 60s and 70s but there's always hope and there's joy ahead."