Last Tuesday, UW students had a new reason to visit — or maybe avoid — gay bars on Capitol Hill.

Eleven bars received letters from a would-be terrorist stating his or her intention to poison bar patrons with ricin. According to the author, people will be targeted throughout the bars during a Saturday night in January. In a letter sent to The Stranger’s obituaries desk, the author offered no explanation except to say, “I could take this moment to launch into a diatribe about my indignation towards the gay community, however, I think the deaths will speak for themselves.”

The letters claimed possession of 67 grams of ricin for use on at least 55 people, chosen at random from the following popular bars: the Elite, Neighbours, Wild Rose, the Cuff, Purr, the Eagle, R Place, Re-bar, CC’s, Madison Pub and the Crescent.

“1.25 grams of ricin would definitely be a deadly dose,” said William Hurley of the Washington Poison Control Center. “One milligram per kilogram of body mass is enough to be fatal. If you think you have ingested any ricin, you should call us at 1-800-222-1222 immediately.”

The Centers for Disease Control Web site states that there is no cure for ricin poisoning, although measures can be taken to combat its effects in a small enough dose. Initial symptoms of ricin poisoning are similar to the flu, but can involve blood in the urine or hallucinations.

Ricin is a waste product of castor bean processing. While castor beans are readily available, ricin itself is not.

“It would take an expert with training and equipment to manufacture 67 grams of ricin for ingestion,” Hurley said.

Only a short bus ride away, many students choose to live in colorful Capitol Hill, a neighborhood famous for its night life, restaurants and plethora of gay bars.

“My parents are from Nebraska, and when I came out, they worried about how hard life would be,” said Brian (last name withheld for privacy), who lives in Capitol Hill with his boyfriend. “They were sad that I would always feel different. When they visited me and saw men holding hands in the street and on dates in restaurants, they cried. They had never imagined there would be a place where I could be accepted until they came out to visit me here.”

When the safety of the bars comes into question, so can Capitol Hill’s position as a queer-friendly area for UW students and Seattlelites.

There has been a great deal of speculation about the author of the letters. In his blog Jan. 7, The Stranger columnist Dan Savage suspected that the writer was a dissatisfied gay man seeking to punish others for the happiness he had failed to achieve.

Other theories proliferated among weekend barhoppers.

“I’m pretty sure [the letters were written] for financial reasons,” said Timothy Grott, a patron of the upscale gay and lesbian bar Purr. “There used to be 22 [gay] bars and now there are 11. With all the condos going up, people are trying to send the message for bar-goers to stop filling the street. As these condos are going up, the neighborhood is changing. It’s conforming, and there is less space for us. If the bars lose business and shut down, that’s more space for condos.”

Grott believed the threat of actual ricin poisoning was unlikely, although he’s emphatic about the importance of community response to the economic threat the letters pose.

“It’s important to show we aren’t afraid, so we’re going to the bars to make a scene and say,‘We’re here, poison us,’” Grott said.

He described the ricin letters as a distraction from the bigger threat of HIV to the community.

“We’ve got bigger problems,” Grott said. “Whether its sex or unattended drinks, people have to take care of themselves and use common sense. Don’t take drinks from strangers and don’t have unprotected sex.”

UW graduate student Lindsay Butt agreed.

“It’s unlikely that someone will poison you with ricin — unless you’ve really annoyed the KGB,” Butt said while referencing the infamous “umbrella murder” of a spy in England involving the poison. “But there are often reports of young people (men, women, gay, straight) being poisoned by the various kinds of date rape drugs.” Butt came out to the bars on Jan. 11 with friends for fun, only when she saw the signs warning patrons to be careful did she find out about the ricin threat.

On Jan. 10, a pub crawl of the targeted bars was organized in order to show community support. One night later, people remained equally impassioned and the targeted bars were packed with revelers and concerned citizens, some of whom were UW students. For many of them, drinking was a form of activism, a stand against the terror the letters sought to incite.

“It’s about not responding to the fear — not being oppressed by the fear,” explained Dan Loya as he waited in line to enter the Cuff. “You just have to keep living your life and you can’t just hide in your house from fear.”

Kindra Meyer, a patron at the Wild Rose, agreed.

“I think the guy who wrote [the letters] is full of s–,” Meyer said, taking a long sip from her drink. “He didn’t stop me from coming out to celebrate my friend’s birthday.”

Other patrons took the threat more seriously.

“I thought about staying in all weekend,” said Julie Benson, among friends at a table at the Rose. “I’m getting old and it’s not worth risking it. When you find people that you love in your life, you don’t want to take chances.”

It was her concern for safety, however, that ultimately made Benson come out on a rainy Saturday night.

“If I was in a bar and saw somebody doing something, I’d be the first person to get up and do something about it,” she said. “I guess that’s why I’m out, in case I see something.”

Most of the revelers took on the attitude that the threats were unfortunate to endure but not something to ruin their good time.

“I was glad to see that the threat from the letters didn’t interfere with operation of the clubs,” said Brett Walton, a UW Jackson School graduate student. “The Wildrose had signs saying the staff would remove abandoned drinks, but security wasn’t blown out of proportion. People seemed disappointed that someone would make that threat but not terrified.”

Staying postive was a reoccuring theme around the area.

“The fact that there is a threat against the community is kind of a lame thing,” said Leo Gupta, a friend of Loya’s. “We don’t want the [letter-writer] to win against us.”

Gupta went on to express another motivation behind Saturday’s large crowds: “Getting a buzz is also a fun reason to go out,” he said.

Reach reporter Elizabeth Brady at features@dailyuw.com.