Longtime islanders Ellen Kritzman and Stephen Silha say that one of the only traces left of the Vashon Gay Pride Alliance is the organization’s name — it’s posted under an Adopt-a-Road sign on Vashon Highway, just north of the Burton Adventure Recreation Park.

“In the ’90s, we purposefully entered that program so we could have a sign which indicated there was a community, a welcoming community here,” said Kritzman.

She and Silha, the curators of an upcoming exhibit at the Vashon Heritage Museum, have put out a call for LGBTQ islanders to lend their experiences to a story circle on Sunday, March 10, at 4 p.m. at Spoke. The event is part of an effort to tell the history of Vashon’s LGBTQ community through art, education, and programming in conjunction with the exhibit’s launch this summer on June 7.

Having lived on Vashon for more than 40 years, Kritzman remembers a time when LGBTQ life on the island had greater visibility than it does today — she said the formation of the Pride Alliance in the early 1990s was a watershed moment for the community, which gathered regularly to host auctions to benefit island causes, as well as a beloved annual New Year’s dance. But Kritzman said that much of that time has since slipped into obscurity. With the exhibit, called “In and Out: Being LGBTQ on Vashon Island,” she hopes that will change.

“We’re here, but we’re not in any kind of group that you can get in touch with,” she said. “But it’s possible that an outcome of this exhibit will be to kind of reignite something along those lines.”

The Pride Alliance still awards scholarships to graduating high school students, though it is no longer otherwise active. But Kritzman believes that islanders and families identifying as LGBTQ will appreciate an exhibit honoring the rich history and gay culture that Vashon fostered for decades, as well as their own connection to it.

“We have lots of artists, musicians, as well as business people,” she said. “I’m not sure how we present that yet, but [we’d like] to get across that we’re everywhere, we’re in every profession, and contribute to your island’s vibrant life.”

According to the 2010 census, 5.5 percent of households on Vashon are headed by same-sex couples, making the island home to the highest concentration of same-sex couples in the state. Whether that trend has continued remains to be seen in the 2020 census, but Kritzman said she believes LGBTQ families find the privacy and safety available to them on Vashon especially appealing.

Silha agreed.

“What is it that makes this such a magnet for LGBTQ people?” He asked. “We’re finding out that in many cases, it’s not because there’s a gay community here; it’s because they love nature, they love the island.”

Silha recalls the Rock Men of Vashon, a gay men’s social group that piloted three floats in the 1991 Seattle Gay Pride Parade, and along with the Vashon Gay Pride Alliance, made an appearance or two in the island Strawberry Festival. There was also the Kazoo Marching Band, he said, organized largely by gay people and rivaling the Thriftway shopping cart brigade.

“But now we haven’t been out there for too many years,” he said.

Silha said that an advisory committee for organizing the exhibit in the Heritage Museum meets once a month, and its vision is beginning to come together. But he said the task, and the territory, comes with certain challenges, namely that for much of its history before the Pride Alliance, gay life on Vashon remained hidden.

“We’re literally thinking of building a closet here so that in the exhibit, you’ll go into a closet, and then you’ll come out of the closet, so you’ll sort of have that experience as a person looking at this,” he said.

The committee is seeking to compile an archive of photos, protest materials, such as banners and signs, and other miscellaneous artifacts from islanders that can be used to develop the exhibit. Organizers hope to raise money through an online GoFundMe campaign to construct and install a series of displays, including a national timeline of the gay rights movement, a then and now collaborative video project, and an outdoor AIDS memorial garden. Custom window treatments designed by local artist Brian Fisher will be hung in the museum, displaying the lyrics of renowned gay anthems.

Organizers say the exhibit is timely as June will mark the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village in New York City, widely understood as the birth of the modern gay rights movement. Silha and Kritzman expressed dismay that the exhibit was prescient for a darker reason as well, noting the rise of suspected hate crime incidents across the country. Last week, four men were charged after a vicious assault of a gay couple in Austin left them hospitalized. In December, a woman was assaulted on a New York subway for kissing her girlfriend; her spine was fractured during the attack.

Silha added that the Heritage Museum has received hate mail since announcing the proposed exhibit and that highway signs posted by the Vashon Gay Pride Alliance were consistently defaced, stolen and even shot at over the years. Some of the recovered signs will be included in the exhibit.

Even still, he said the island stands apart from other communities that are unwelcoming of LGBTQ people, and that he would invite anyone to see for themselves why so many have chosen to make Vashon their home.

“I would tell them that it’s a very supportive, tolerant community in which people can get involved in whatever activity they ’re passionate about,” he said.

RSVP to attend the story circle by emailing lgbtqvashon@gmail.com. More information about the Heritage Museum’s upcoming exhibit is available online.