I remember him well and also a great attorney - for which I used his services. Had a neat office down in Pioneer Square or near there.

@1 ... sigh. I don't think you remember him as well as you think you do.

Charlie Brydon was not an attorney. His business was an insurance agency.

@2: Ok - it was a fuzzy memory.

Thank you, Randy Beitel and Lonnie Lusardo, for this excellent celebration of life. Thanks also to The Stranger for publishing it. If it can be said to have a flaw, that would be in understating Charlie Brydon's quiet heroism, in saving Washington State's LGBQT citizens from a nightmare of bigotry and hatred.

When the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed, most Americans rejoiced at our victory of freedom in the Cold War. Not so our right wing, who now desperately lacked An Other to hate unreservedly. Lon Mabon and other opportunists made the most of filling this howling chasm, turning anti-gay bigotry into a cottage industry in Oregon and other states. In 1992, Mabon and his bigoted Oregon Citizens Alliance failed to pass Measure 9 in Oregon, but Amendment 2 did pass in Colorado. Oregon had endured a long summer of threats and violence against LGBTQ citizens and their allies; in Colorado, Amendment 2 declared gays were not even human beings: 911 dispatchers could legally ignore gays calling for help.

Having turned Colorado into "the Hate State," anti-gay bigots confidently predicted their reign of terror here, and announced they'd pass a hateful ballot Initiative in 1994. Charlie Brydon stopped them. New Year's Eve parties on Capitol Hill became fundraisers to meet the threat, and Hands Off Washington (at which I became a humble contributor and volunteer) thus started 1993 flush with cash. Hands Off Washington (HOW) used this to begin organizing in every part of Washington State, as this story noted, but Charlie paid special attention to churches, synagogues, and mosques.

In early 1994, when the bigots arrived, expecting an easy ride from houses of worship, they were gobsmacked by having their assumed allies already arrayed against them. Their excruciating pain and resultant fury was a beauty to watch, and HOW quickly tagged them as out-of-state haters. They limped through their unsuccessful signature-gathering campaigns, finally admitting their proposed Initiatives "were intended to be discriminatory." This was the first time in Wasington State's history that an Initiative had been defeated in the signature-gathering stage, and Charlie Brydon made our unprecedented victory possible.

Cal Anderson and his protege, Ed Murray, would go on to win the big statewide battles for gay rights and marriage, but thanks to Charlie Brydon, they started from a position of strength.

Wonderful tribute, thank you so much! I remember creepy, self-hating weirdo Lon Mabon — yikes what a strange character he was, and no doubt confused by his own sexuality (if any). Rest In Power, Charlie Brydon ...thank you for everything!

I did not know Charlie Brydon but I wish I did. Perhaps the friend remembered in comment 1 & 2 is Roger Winters who also recently passed. I met Roger while both of us again re-joined the board of seamec just as the Pandemic started. It sounds like him, working in the offices of the ACLU in the Smith Tower, cofounding member of seamec and a Dorian Group member... if you were to get your civil rights activist mixed up at least these two knew each other. Remembering our gay history is as much a struggle as the struggle itself which is probably why Roger was spending so much time gathering his life's work and was sharing it with me each visit. I wonder what happened to it after his passing? Along with others lost recently like George Bakon they were warriors fighting a great war together that is not over but won many battles before they left us and deserve to be remembered well.
Remembered in different news papers but very much a part of the same community. See a wonderful photo of Charlie and Roger standing proudly together with the Dorian group circa 1977:
https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2020/11/roger-winters-who-gave-keynote-at-first-seattle-pride-remembered-for-lifetime-of-lgbtqia-civil-rights-work/