In addition to traditional educational efforts such as a newsletter, the Dorian Society had a speakers bureau to speak in Seattle public schools, appeared on radio programs, led tours of gay bars for a program called Urban Plunge, and hosted drag balls. The Dorian Society was Seattle’s early homophile organization, as most gay groups were called during this era. The Queen City Business Guild, an organization of bar owners that would eventually become today’s Greater Seattle Business Association, as well as the United Ebony Council, a black gay male organization founded in 1975, and part of the Court of Seattle with its empresses and royalty, both used the Mocambo for early organizational meetings.Īnother important organization that met regularly at the Mocambo during the late 1960s was the Dorian Society. The Mocambo, open from 1951 to 1978, served a vital role as a meeting place for early gay organizations. Like many of the bars and taverns in Pioneer Square, the Mocambo Restaurant and Lounge was far more than just a lounge.
