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An in-floor screen in George Freeman's home flashes Monastery throwbacks. The whir of a helicopter rotor slices through the air, disrupting the night sky above the brown clapboard church on Boren Avenue. A disc jockey dressed in monks' robes waits to emerge as the chopper eases down for a landing. Spotlights beam upward. Somewhere from within the building's cavernous depths, Mozart's Fugue in D Minor filters out onto the street to the line of people snaking down the block.

With all that, on May 13,one of Seattle's most controversial dance clubs opened its doors. The Monastery attracted lasting devotion and seething disdain during its tumultuous eight-year run. What started as an all-ages disco, especially for gay youth, later morphed into a church and de facto homeless shelter. Then inled by King County prosecutor Norm Maleng, Seattle officials issued a civil abatement against the Monastery, alleging drug use, prostitution, and underage drinking as reasons to shut it down.

The building was demolished, and the city passed the Teen Dance Ordinance that same year to deter copycats from ever sprouting up again.

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Monastery regulars, though, remember the club as a haven for the queer community, a family, a place to bar yourself. Back then, the nightclub owner and event promoter had just moved to Seattle from New York City when he came across an empty Methodist church on the corner of Boren and Stewart.

It had a steeply pitched roof, stained glass windows, and a towering steeple. George Freeman, at his home during the 45th anniversary party for the Monastery, says music has the ability to bring people together. Lease in hand, Freeman old the place of worship into a church of dance. Flashing lights and disco balls.

A massive dance floor with "the best sound system you could ever find. They partied the whole night away and they had a wonderful time. They became family. The church thing was an accident. People saw the building, Freeman says, assumed it washington an actual church, and knocked on the door for help. We ended up with gay people.

They were thrown out of their houses, excommunicated from the churches, beaten up by their friends and family, and on the verge of suicide T hat's how we evolved into a church where gay people had a right to be who they were. In Mayhe made it official, becoming ordained and obtaining a certificate of association with the Universal Life Church.

But the trouble, which had started shortly after the club opened, only escalated from there. Back in Octoberthe police raided the Monastery gay arrested Freeman, alleging he dispensed alcohol without a liquor license and served minors. More police raids over the seattle years led to a back-and-forth volley of charges, arrests, denials, and appeals.