Seattle Pride hears it
11:18 PM
Your web-wrangler offers these few notes from a meeting held Sunday evening:
About 60 people crowded into what soon became a sweltering conference room Sunday to sound off to the board of Seattle Pride about their proposal to move activities to downtown and Seattle Center.
The meeting was immediately opened to comments from the crowd. The comments were overwhelmingly opposed to the move. Of the 35 or 40 speakers only six or seven expressed support for the move.
The most emotional of the statements in favor of moving the festival to Seattle Center came from a woman who told the board that holding the event in Volunteer Park makes it inaccessible to many in wheelchairs. "We need to be inclusive of everyone," she said.
Most of the speakers, however, expressed a strong desire to keep the events on the Hill.
"Capitol Hill is a cultural center" said one woman who introduced herself as native American. "It's a center even for people who don't live there. We need to preserve that."
Several speakers expressed concern for safety if the parade were staged downtown. "You're going to have gay-bashings like you've never seen," said a woman who explained that she lives in the Regrade area.
Speakers were called to the podium in the same order they'd arrived. Most of the first several speakers were business owners who expressed dismay at plans to move to the parade, including Carl Medeiros, a Capitol Hill business owner who plopped down a petition with, he said, 8265 signatures of those opposed to the move.
Rick McKinnon, a veteran of the Freedom Day Committee -- Seattle Pride's predecessor organization -- said, "Let's focus on improving what we have." He suggested that SPC might hold float-making seminars and should return the rainbow banners to Broadway. He questioned a point on the handout from SPC board members which claims that Broadway couldn't handle larger crowds for the parade. "There's still plenty of room," he said, while admitting that crowds get thick in a few spots, but "that's part of the fun."
A Broadway apartment manager expressed similar sentiments. "We're not ready to move the parade downtown," said Lee [and here your WebWrangler shows how long it's been since he held a reporter's pen since he didn't get the last name right] Sorano. "I don't think we're ready yet to sustain four days at Seattle Center."
A former SPC board member, said much the same. "Never once did we hear anything positive about moving this off the Hill. Let's go back to the drawing board. You are not a team that can take this event out of this community."
Although the tone became more contentious as the meeting was breaking up (and as the temperature in the room rose), the comments were mostly civil and mostly respectful. Nearly everyone kept to the three-minute time slot for comments.
Technorati tags: Gay Gay pride Seattle Pride Seattle
About 60 people crowded into what soon became a sweltering conference room Sunday to sound off to the board of Seattle Pride about their proposal to move activities to downtown and Seattle Center.
The meeting was immediately opened to comments from the crowd. The comments were overwhelmingly opposed to the move. Of the 35 or 40 speakers only six or seven expressed support for the move.
The most emotional of the statements in favor of moving the festival to Seattle Center came from a woman who told the board that holding the event in Volunteer Park makes it inaccessible to many in wheelchairs. "We need to be inclusive of everyone," she said.
Most of the speakers, however, expressed a strong desire to keep the events on the Hill.
"Capitol Hill is a cultural center" said one woman who introduced herself as native American. "It's a center even for people who don't live there. We need to preserve that."
Several speakers expressed concern for safety if the parade were staged downtown. "You're going to have gay-bashings like you've never seen," said a woman who explained that she lives in the Regrade area.
Speakers were called to the podium in the same order they'd arrived. Most of the first several speakers were business owners who expressed dismay at plans to move to the parade, including Carl Medeiros, a Capitol Hill business owner who plopped down a petition with, he said, 8265 signatures of those opposed to the move.
Rick McKinnon, a veteran of the Freedom Day Committee -- Seattle Pride's predecessor organization -- said, "Let's focus on improving what we have." He suggested that SPC might hold float-making seminars and should return the rainbow banners to Broadway. He questioned a point on the handout from SPC board members which claims that Broadway couldn't handle larger crowds for the parade. "There's still plenty of room," he said, while admitting that crowds get thick in a few spots, but "that's part of the fun."
A Broadway apartment manager expressed similar sentiments. "We're not ready to move the parade downtown," said Lee [and here your WebWrangler shows how long it's been since he held a reporter's pen since he didn't get the last name right] Sorano. "I don't think we're ready yet to sustain four days at Seattle Center."
A former SPC board member, said much the same. "Never once did we hear anything positive about moving this off the Hill. Let's go back to the drawing board. You are not a team that can take this event out of this community."
Although the tone became more contentious as the meeting was breaking up (and as the temperature in the room rose), the comments were mostly civil and mostly respectful. Nearly everyone kept to the three-minute time slot for comments.
Technorati tags: Gay Gay pride Seattle Pride Seattle
Labels: Gay events, gay organization, LGBTQ, Seattle Pride
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