Last month, news broke that Seattle’s parks department was considering building a new kids play area on the shores of Lake Washington. It ignited a firestorm of community pushback.
The playground is being proposed for Denny Blaine Park, a small beach cordoned by historic sea walls. It has been used for decades as a nude beach and a gathering place for the region’s queer and trans community. The unofficial name: "Dykiki."
Hundreds filled a community center wall-to-wall Wednesday night to protest the playground plans, wearing shirts that said "Save Denny Blaine" and signs with slogans such as “gay buns over shady funds.”
The “shady” funds – an anonymous $500,000 donation to the parks department to build the play area. The nearest children's playground is a little under a mile, according to Andrew Sheffer, deputy superintendent of operations for Seattle Parks and Recreation.
"It is one of the only gaps in the city," Sheffer told the crowded room Wednesday night, pointing to a slide show.
But it's also a rich area where the average home price is around $2 million, according to Redfin. (Kurt Cobain’s old house is right down the street.)
"And for that reason, it's not in our capital plan to put the play area there," Sheffer said, to widespread cheering.
"The donation does provide an opportunity," he continued, which was followed by booing.
Nudity has been legal anywhere in Seattle for decades, but under municipal code, you can be prosecuted if authorities can prove you intentionally caused “reasonable affront or alarm.” Speakers at the event, as well as some residents of the neighborhood, feared the kids play area is an effort to put straight families and the LGBTQIA+ community in conflict, and compared it to fights over anti-drag laws.
Many speakers said Denny Blaine was an important gathering place — not just as a place where they could sunbathe without fear of harassment, but especially as a safe space for transgender people.
"It will likely fuel misinformation and hate-filled rhetoric leading to danger for everyone involved," said Oliver Webb, a trans man and executive director of the Diversity Alliance of the Puget Sound, a nonprofit.
Many people said Denny Blaine Park is a place where they feel they belong — one of the few.
"I am trans," said one speaker. "Being trans at the beach can be really, really scary. You do not know if you are going to be called a slur, if you're going to be called a groomer or some other ridiculous thing that a lot of people in this country think that we all are. Putting a children's playground next to one of the only spots — not just in the city, but in the country — where you can be visibly trans, is inviting the most vicious and hateful accusations towards members of the trans community."
Speakers at the meeting expressed fears that the donor is trying to put them in conflict with neighborhood families, and push them out. Some residents of the neighborhood also spoke against the proposal.
"When we said Seattle was becoming a playground for the rich, I didn't think we meant literally," said another speaker.
Sheffer said the parks department will have an update in two weeks.
