Do you still live in Spokane? I left in 1988 to move to CA, and because of the types of social activities I was involved in, it seemed like the gays were quite a force there back then.
I don't think I'll ask what types of social activities you were involved in.
I'm not who you posted this to, but I lived in Spokane from 1980 to 1986 and moved to, thankfully, an even more conservative part of Eastern Washington and I can assure you that gays were not then and are not now 'quite a force there'.
In fact I would advise any limp wristed ones whose car broke down in the area to act as macho as possible in dealing with the locals. All of whom are as we say 'packing' :)
I live in Spokane, and with the exception of one gay bar downtown and one monthly paper, the gays are not a force here. As a matter of fact, this whole idea of a gay district is being met with a strong show of resistence by the community. IOW, we are ignoring them. Just as we ignore their infantile gay "pride" parades.