LGBTQ Seattle reacted strongly last month when the news broke that Seattle Parks Department was planning to add a children’s playground area to Denny Blaine Park, the small city park on the shores of Lake Washington in the upscale Denny Blaine neighborhood. The waterfront park with a beach area, has long been used by LGBTQ residents of the city as a safe and welcoming gathering place for the both gay and non-gay community members who enjoy nude sunbathing.
While Seattle Parks stressed that the plan was to address the “current gap for play areas in the neighborhood”, it soon came to light that the idea for the playground addition apparently came from an anonymous community member who pledged the money towards the construction of the $550,000 playground addition. This news immediately raised suspicion that this was an effort by the anonymous donor to create a situation of making the park less attractive as a nude gathering place with much speculation that the donor was more than likely a wealthy resident of that area.
Nude beach lovers and specifically LGBTQ+ ones reacted to this news by quickly setting up a group to fight the addition of the playground space which many argue, isn’t particularly needed in a low density, high income neighborhood. Many took to social media to protest the plan and to encourage those opposed to it to contact Seattle Park Department and to show up at a public meeting on Wednesday, December 6 at 5:30 at MLK FAME (3201 E. Republican Street).
The “Save Denny Blaine” group quickly set up an Instagram page ( https://www.instagram.com/savedennyblaine/ ) with information and links on how to fight the playground proposal. They also issued this statement:
Queer and trans people are foundational to the history and culture of Seattle. We are constituents of yours, and were recently alarmed to hear that Seattle Parks and Recreation is considering inserting a children’s play area in the northwest section of Denny Blaine Park. Denny Blaine Park is an area that is frequently utilized as a nude beach by the queer community here in Seattle, and is not the right area for a children’s play area to be built. We are supportive of finding a place in the area for a playground to be built, but believe there are better locations than Denny-Blaine.
We urge Parks and Recreation to consider parks nearby such as:
- Lakeview Park (850ft from Denny Blaine, with very large flat open areas and located closer to area schools and more centrally within the neighborhood)
- Viretta Park (500ft from Denny Blaine)
- William Grose Park (0.8 mi) – more centrally-located in Denny-Blaine neighborhood
- Alvin Larkins Park (0.7 mi) – much larger, with far more space for a play area
Nude beaches are a place for queer and trans people to feel confident in their bodies and be themselves in a world that frequently represses their identities. There are not many nude beaches in Seattle, but there are plenty of green spaces that could fit a children’s play area. This move by Seattle Parks and Recreation is nothing short of gentrification and a continuation of the more and more frequent instances of the sanitization of queer spaces. We do not have other spaces to go to, but there are other spaces for a children’s play area to be built to meet the stated need.
The community will be mobilizing to stand against this plan that will erase one of the few genuine queer spaces left in Seattle, but we ask for your support in changing course to a plan that keeps Denny-Blaine intact, and better serves the city and all its residents.
We urge you to read some anecdotes from community members about how important Denny Blaine is to them and see the petition we have created for community members to sign.
I’ll add my two cents to say that the Viretta Park idea is also terrible. This is the small hilly park that is by the former Kurt Cobain house where the Nirvana frontman took his own life in 1994 and where Cobain fans frequently leave flowers and memorials to the late singer/songwriter. It’s not an appropriate space for a kiddy playground.
And, I’ll note that kids already go to Denny Blaine…it’s not entirely child-free as people bring their young children with them to hang out on the tiny beach. Denny Blaine is a VERY mixed space and not exclusive to any one group, though obviously it’s a very liberal/hippy dippy kind of environment.
I’m also not sure that a playground necessarily means it’s the end of the beach as a nude space or queer space. As already said, kids come here now, though really not that many and they tend to be young ones with their parents. I don’t see there being a sudden influx of thousands of kids and parents to what is going to be a very small playground…also, the rich kids and the rich parents of this neighborhood already either have their own fabulous playgrounds at their homes or access to far more luxorious opportunities to entertain their kiddies.
And, if the anonymous donor is doing this hoping the nudists go away, it seems like a lot of money to spend for something that may or may not happen. If it’s all about getting rid of nudists, the gays, or heavy traffic in the area, it all seems like a lot of hubbub for very little payoff. Unless the city is going to also spend money on security to deter nudists/queer people from the park…which seems unlikely since nudity is legally ok in Seattle (as long as you’re not being overtly sexual) and for the even bigger reason that the city doesn’t have the money to spend on enforcing any kind of ban on nudists or queer people.
That said, this plan is pretty dumb. And, if rich people have the money to throw around on bequests like this, then they have too much money and need to be paying more in taxes. For that alone, we need to protest this stupid plan.
#SaveDennyBlaine
About the Author: Michael Strangeways
