In the late 1970s and very early 1980s, Capitol Hill was one of the few neighborhoods in the country where LGBTQ+ people could largely live out of the closet. To the young people moving to Seattle from more regressive parts of the country, the area around Broadway — with its openly queer arts organizations and its vibrant nightlife — felt practically utopian. (LGBTQ+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning, with the + denoting everything along the gender and sexuality spectrum.)
For those transplants, Capitol Hill seemingly had it all: restaurants, arthouse movie theaters, dance clubs, drag shows, alternative media. But after they lived there for a month or two, they’d start complaining about one particularly noteworthy hole in the fabric of the community: Capitol Hill needed a really good general interest bookstore.
When Michael Coy moved to Seattle in 1981, he wanted to fill that need…
