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Seattle Pride Committee laying plans to move Gay Pride to Seattle Center

Seattle Pride Committee laying plans to move Gay Pride to Seattle Center
by Robert Raketty - SGN Staff Writer Seattle Center administrators confirmed this week with the SGN that a tentative agreement has been reached with the Seattle Pride Committee to hold Seattles GLBT Parade/March and Rally at Seattle Center next year. Pride Committee members plan to make the announcement from the stage at the Pride Rally on Sunday, June 26. The Seattle Pride Committee has reserved the Center for a four-day event next year, beginning on June 22 and ending on June 25. The facilities that are to be utilized include the Seattle Center House and its conference rooms, the Mural Amphitheater, Fisher Pavilion, the International Fountain lawn and several of the Centers open spaces, such as the Sculpture Park. The intention is to allow the festival to grow and become the kind of thing that it can be, Seattle Pride Committee Marketing Director Dale Kirshner told the Seattle Gay News. We think it is a great event to have on the Centers campus, said Kim Allen, Seattle Centers Director of Community and Public Affairs. We envision the Center as a community gathering place, exactly the kind of place to host such an event. The Fisher [Pavilion] is a two year old facility. It was built exactly for these types of events. It was opened as a community gathering place. It is in the middle of the campus and has hosted several community and cultural events. It is a wonderful space, a great space for this type of event. We welcome the Pride Festival as we do with all the cultural festivals, said Perry Cooper, a Seattle Center spokesperson. It is a great opportunity to share cultures that we have throughout the community, which is the key to the Seattle Centers mission brining people together and sharing the diversity of the community. The Seattle Center accommodates between 13 to 17 cultural festivals every year, said Cooper. We sponsor Seattle Centers Festál, which is a series of cultural festivals every year. We have done those for 10 years now, he said. We host everything from the Têt Festival (Vietnamese Lunar New Year), Sundiata (African-American Festival), Seattle Cherry Blossom and Japanese Festival and the Hmong New Year Celebration. BUSINESS OWNERS LAUNCH PETITION DRIVE The news that Gay Day, as it is affectionately called, could be taken from the tree-lined neighborhoods of Capitol Hill and placed right in the middle of the busy summer tourist mecca of downtown Seattle has shocked and saddened some and angered a few, particularly business owners along Broadway. Broadway merchants have started circulating a petition calling on the Pride Committee to keep the March and Festival on Capitol Hill. They plan to gather between 30,000 and 50,000 signatures at restaurants, bars and shops all over the Hill then deliver the petitions to the Pride Committee on the day of the march and rally this month. For the Pride Committee to move the parade off the Hill is sort of a slap in the face, Carl Medeiros, owner of Panache on Broadway, told the SGN Thursday. Of the many comments [the Pride Committee] has made, one of them is that Capitol Hill has changed and it is not the Gay neighborhood it used to be. I differ with that. The neighborhood is clearly filled with bars, restaurants and businesses that are Gay-owned or Gay-friendly. These businesses are the businesses that we support, that we patronize. I live on Capitol Hill and these are the business I support. They say businesses make up a very small portion of the Gay community. To me, I guess I am confused about what they are saying, because the Gay businessesabout 80 percent are up on Capitol Hill. So, why wouldnt you go up to the business and ask for their input? It is clearly going to affect them. Kirshner told the SGN that the Pride Committee had been considering a move off Capitol Hill for the last three years or so, but approved the plan only three or four months ago. The intention isnt to yank the rug out from Capitol Hill Kirshner said. During our interactions with the City, [moving the event] was something they kind of encouraged just from the standpoint of having to handle the size of crowd that we do now, he said. Virginia Swanson, Special Events Coordinator for the City of Seattle, has worked with Seattle Pride planners throughout her long career with the city. She said any speculation that the Parks Department or the City of Seattle is pressuring the Seattle Pride Committee to move off Capitol Hill was definitely untrue. She said the Pride Committee would be absolutely welcome to return to Volunteer Park next year if it so desired. We have really enjoyed hosting the event on the Saturday and the Sunday, the movies at the Volunteer Park - its a good event, said Swanson. There arent issues with using the park. Steve Timmons, owner of the very popular R Place tavern, said, Being one who feels like we have always participated in Pride every year with a float... my softball team players were always involved, we had fundraisers and kick off parties...that all is going to be dropped. I wouldnt help [the Seattle Pride Committee] fundraise if they take it off the Hill. Why would I? It doesnt serve my business. It doesnt serve my customers who live in this community. Turning it into a big corporate event is just wrong. Debbie Augustavo, owner of the Broadway Grill for the last 14 years, told the SGN that she does three days of worth of business on Pride Sunday. She said cant come up with one good reason why the event should not remain within our community. Not even from a business standpoint, she emphasized. Its like moving the parade in San Francisco out of The Castro. I mean, it just doesnt make any sense. Why would they try and move it to another location? Lindsay Cunningham, owner of Spotlight Fashions on Broadway, says he would prefer that the Pride March and Festival stays on Capitol Hill, but would be open to compromise. They can still have the parade on Broadway and the other things through out the city, he said. I dont know why they would have to putt it all in one place. If they spread the events around the town, they would spread out the monetary benefit as well. COMMUNITY MEETING NEEDED Eladio Ereciaco, owner of Julias on Broadway, told the SGN he feels like the Pride Committee is out of touch with the community. He said that recently he had been treated poorly by a member of the Pride Committee when he called their office and asked for a meeting with Capitol Hill business owners. I told [the Pride Committee] that I would really like to sit down and have a discussion and the other merchants, because we would like to talk to you about this so we can find common ground. I am inviting you to come and sit with us. Ereciaco said he was told, No, we are not interested. We already made up our decision and we dont want to sit down with you guys. There is no need to. Kirshner says that Pride Committee had a couple of community meetings, one reserved specifically for the bars to talk about the move, and that community has always had an opportunity to provide input. However, he admits, they had not specifically attempted to reach out the business community on Capitol Hill. We are primarily trying to focus on this years Pride before we start doing a lot of that stuff, he said. I would anticipate right after Pride has taken place and we have had a chance to breathe for a couple of days, that then we will try to engage everyone up there and get all the feedback that we can. I would be very interested to hear the feedback that any of them might have especially as a group. We are not opposed to anyone sitting down and talking with everybody up there. The business owners are just as much a part of the community as anybody else. Some things we have no choice in; in some things we do. Once all the information has been gathered and all the opinions have passed along; we will figure out what is going to happen. R Places Steve Timmons told the SGN that if the Pride Committee were to move the March and Festival out of his neighborhood, he would see little reason to continue his financial support of the event. I dont like the idea to tell you the truth, because I think those of us who have been on Capitol Hill for all these years and have supported the parade are being betrayed. We are the ones who have basically written the checks to have the parade go on and helped past Pride committees pay off their debts, said Timmons. Ereciaco called on the regions LGBT community to sign the petition. If you want to keep the parade on Capitol Hill where its been for 20 years then sign the petition and let the out of touch Pride Committee know you want to keep the parade where its been, he said. It is almost like taking the summer solstice to the University District. It doesnt make sense I was up the last couple nights making up all these posters. I designed everything on my computer and made all these things. Carl [Medeiros] and I are really doing a grassroots effort to hopefully make a change. I am not surprised to see how quickly its catching on.