Queer Student Life in Walla Walla
1992 - 1994: Humanities in Togetherness and Alternative Lifestyles League
In the nineties, HIT and ALL were two of the main (and only) LGBTQ+ organizations in the Walla Walla valley. Dedicated to provide resources and support to LGBTQ+ people in the region, they shared potential resources, published newsletter and held regular social events like dances or dinners to give people the chance to mingle. Prof. Robert Tobin learned about these groups early in his career at Whitman and would share information about them with Whitman students.
"I did find out about these groups, these TriCities and Walla Walla-based groups, and I don't remember which came first. But one of them was ALL, the Alternative Lifestyle League, and the other was HIT, the HIT Crowd, Humanities in Togetherness... It was through those groups then that I would meet other gay people .... but eventually a bar opened in Tri-Cities and it kind of killed those groups... people would just drive to that bar 'cause it was always open, instead of waiting once a month to go to the monthly party." - Robert Tobin, July 17, 2019, transcript page 4.
HIT Jan/Feb Schedule 1993
Humanities in Togetherness flier with a monthly schedule for January and February, including a Valentine's Day dance.
ALL St Patty's Day Dance
Flier for a Alternative Lifestyles League dance for St. Patrick's Day dance held in Touchet, hand-drawn map included
1993 - 1997: Hands Off Washington
Hands Off Washington (HOW), also known as Washington Citizens for Fairness, was a Washington-state, grassroots gay rights organization created in 1993 to fight against ballot initiatives (608 and 610) that intended to limit gay rights and allow employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. The ballot initiatives were sponsored by an Oregon group, Oregon Citizens Alliance, thus the name, 'Hands Off Washington' was meant to cast the OCA as an outside influence on Washington state politics. HOW also promoted a ballot initiative that added sexual orientation to anti-discrimination laws in 1997, but the initiative wasn't passed. Eventually, a significant portion of the leadership from HOW founded Equal Rights Washington in 2004.
"There was something happening at the state level in Washington... in that, a statewide, grassroots organization called Hands Off Washington. Local groups of this organization start popping up to advocate against whatever the state-wide initiative was at that time. I remember trying to start a group, a Hands Off Washington group, in Walla Walla. We had a couple meetings… But that was, to my knowledge, at that point in time, was the only kind of [LGBTQ] activism." - Alex Cofield, transcript page 16-7.
1991+: Blue Mountain Heart to Heart: http://www.bluemountainheart.org/
Blue Mountain Heart to Heart is a Walla Walla/Tri-Cities organization focused on promoting public health and wellness in the community, with an emphasis on HIV prevention and care. It was founded in 1991 and has played an important role in community health and LGBTQ activism in the area since. Blue Mountain Heart to Heart not only provides care and support services for people in need but also HIV and STD testing and a syringe exchange program.
"But yeah, the main organization was Heart to Heart and it did draw a fair number of gay people on the fundraising side and us members of the board and volunteers. We were always an agency that had a lot of non-gay clients and that has ended up being the future of AIDS. But that was, I think, the primary social, local, political group. I don't recall there being like a Walla Walla Pride group or anything like that. Besides these kind of groups like the Alternative Lifestyles League and the Humanities in Togetherness, and I was never involved in the leadership of those groups. That's interesting to me, to think about that. There just didn't seem to be any traction for developing like a Walla Walla Pride or anything like that." Robert Tobin, August 16, 2019, page 7.
Whitman Students and Walla Walla University
Walla Walla University Panels
Transcript of clippings from Wolf, Schwendiman and MacFife about their experiences doing panels on LGBTQ identities at Walla Walla University.