At Diversity Alliance of the Puget Sound (DAPS), we don’t march — we mobilize. Our Securing Our Own People (SOOP) teams are already boots on the ground for over 10 events this Pride season, and we’ve fully led health and safety at two. We show up in bulletproof vests — not hi-vis — because for our people, safety isn’t about optics. It’s about survival.

SOOP is a majority Trans-led, fully LGBTQIA+-led program providing abolitionist security, medical, accessibility, and communications support at events where police presence endangers more than it protects. Since 2018, we’ve secured over 200,000 people across Washington — from Redmond and Woodinville to Sno Valley, Seattle, and beyond.

This March, DAPS raised the Trans flag over the Tacoma Dome for the first time — a historic community collaboration. Weeks later, during the Mayday USA counterprotest, Seattle police assaulted our Trans medical director while they were visibly rendering aid at Cal Anderson Park. We didn’t stay silent. We issued public statements and are in ongoing meetings with city officials. And we’re not backing down.

In 2025, SOOP formally merged with DAPS, creating a unified, frontline nonprofit that integrates mutual aid, advocacy, and community-based safety. We’re guided by a new board made up of former DAPS board members, SOOP leadership, organizers from other grassroots orgs, and deeply rooted community members — and we’re just getting started.

Across our programs, DAPS has supported thousands through mutual aid deliveries, resource navigation, and peer-based advocacy — from HRT kits and name-change aid to housing referrals and court support.

We don’t do Pride for attention. We do it for each other. And we’ll keep showing up — because no one keeps us safe like community does.


Oliver Webb is the operations director of the SOOP Program and advocacy director of DAPS. More information is at www.diversityallianceofthepugetsound.org .