Many have chosen sides in gay pride celebrations

Events held on separate days this year

By AMY ROLPH AND KATE ELSTON
P-I REPORTERS

For the second consecutive year, fans of Seattle's annual gay pride celebration will be confronted with two parades and two festivals competing for their attention.

A downtown parade promises visibility and progress, while a parade on Capitol Hill touts loyalty to the gay and lesbian community that nurtured the celebration there for more than 25 years.

The dual celebrations were born when Seattle Out and Proud, the group that organizes Seattle Pride, decided to break rank and move the festivities to the Seattle Center last year.

While fans don't technically have to choose between the events -- a Saturday march on Broadway and a Sunday parade on Fourth Avenue -- many have already taken sides.

"Our loyalty stays here," said Rick Elander, who owns the Capitol Hill bar R Place with his partner. He is among a handful of businesses boycotting the downtown parade in a show of support for the gay community on Capitol Hill and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center.

The community center stepped up to coordinate QueerFest on Capitol Hill after Seattle Out and Proud ran into troubles in April because of a $102,000 debt owed to the Seattle Center from last year's three-day celebration.

The community center helped coordinate a similar -- albeit smaller -- event last year after some decried the merits of celebrating downtown.

"It's a very divided topic, sadly," said Seth Prestwich, a bartender and parade float designer at Changes in Wallingford. "I wish we could find a place and stick with it."

Prestwich is torn between locations. Fourth Avenue is more in line with the large parades in cities such as San Francisco, he said, but the Broadway procession tends to benefit more gay-owned businesses.

Historically, the pride parade was a downtown event until it moved to Capitol Hill in the early 1980s.

In May, City Council members Tom Rasmussen and Sally Clark had a sit-down with organizers of the warring events in an attempt to patch things up. More than a month later, Rasmussen isn't sure if any sort of official truce has been reached, but so far there hasn't been "a lot of quarreling and bickering."

"We have enough challenges to deal with without quarreling among ourselves over a parade," he said.

Seattle Out and Proud and the City Attorney's Office are working out a payment plan for the debt owed to the Seattle Center, said spokesman Troy Campbell. But critics look at the group's financial trouble as a sign that they're not up for planning an event the size of Seattle Pride.

"All this has led to considerable fragmentation and mistrust within the community -- just the opposite of the parade's purpose," said Alvin Fritz, a University of Washington instructor in gay and lesbian studies.

But amid all the controversy, there are those who take a more optimistic approach regarding the future of "pride" in Seattle.

Shannon Thomas, executive director of the LGBT Center, admitted that a lot of emotions have been churning for the past few years, but "there's no fight -- there's no us versus them," she said. "We have enough enemies. We don't need it in our community."

Thomas isn't sure what QueerFest will look like next year. The community center is planning on holding the event again, but if downtown events rebound in size, Capitol Hill festivities might be scaled back.

Local event planner Egan Orion is coordinating the after-party event at the end of Sunday's parade, and he thinks the gay community isn't as divided as it might seem.

"My philosophy from the start is there is more than enough to go around in the city," he said. "Pride can be on the hill and downtown. I think we are one happy family in a lot of ways. Sometimes there are personal politics that get in the way of us seeing that."

PRIDE WEEKEND 2007

SATURDAY

11 a.m.: Pride March, starts at Broadway and East Pine Street.

12 p.m.-dark: QueerFest at Volunteer Park. The festival will have two stages of entertainment, vendors, music, spoken word and film. For more information, go to queerfest.org.

8 p.m.-2 a.m.: One Mighty Pride at the Experience Music Project Sky Church. Get in for $55 at the door. Music and performances by Joe Gauthreaux, Frenchie Davis, Seattle Men's and Women's Choruses and several DJs.

SUNDAY

11 a.m.: Pride Parade starts at Union Street and Fourth Avenue.

12-7 p.m.: PrideFest at Fisher Pavilion at the Seattle Center. There will be music, comedians, political speakers, vendors and a beer garden.