The Late 1990s and 2000
1995
After the successful defeat of the two initiatives from the previous year, the queer community was immediately hit with two new nearly identical anti-gay initiatives: 166 and 167. “We’re not at the height of anger as last year, it’s impossible to maintain at that level,” said Ray Carter the FDC co-chair. But the fight went on and again both ballot measures were defeated.
Over 160 contingents joined the parade/march, including many groups from across Washington. State Senator Cal Anderson, seriously ill with HIV, was named Grand Marshal. He died shortly after. The event was dedicated to well-known Seattle Gay News photographer Cookie Andrews-Hunt, a feminist, lesbian, and founder of the Women's Coalition to Stop the Green River Murders who died in April. Chicago Rose emceed the rally resplendent in her satin, lace, and peacock feather studded gown. Speakers featured youth from Lambert House and Reverend Dr. Robert Jeffrey, Sr. of the African American New Hope Baptist Church who stressed the importance of solidarity between gay people and the Black community.
FDC estimated the crowd at over 75,000, the cops claimed it was 40,000.
1996
Whether or not to allow the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) to march at pride seriously divided the community. The FDC broke with tradition and banned NAMBLA. Stonewall argued the uncomfortable position that the march should include any and all pro-queer advocates.
Nevertheless, the march and rally continued to be tremendously successful, drawing still larger numbers. Grand Marshal for 1996 was the organization Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). Speakers pressed for AIDS funding, affirmative action, transgender acceptance, immigrant rights, and an end to racism. State Representatives Velma Veloria and Ed Murray spoke as did Seattle City Councilor Tina Podlodowski.
1997
Controversy exploded following the 1996 event when local sex columnist Dan Savage declared in The Stranger, a trendy weekly newspaper, that FDC’s parade/march and rally were boring. He called for pride day to be completely overhauled. Savage said the event contained too much political content, and once again, the compromise between protest and celebration erupted. Savage pulled together a group that joined FDC, made a motion to discard the open, grassroots operation, and established a private board of directors by outvoting the veteran organizers. Although they won the vote, they accomplished nothing further as the months went by. When the community demanded accountability, most of Dan Savage’s board resigned and disappeared 8 weeks before the 1997 parade and rally were to take place.
Former FDC members jumped in to pull it together. The theme “Jobs and Freedom, Everyone Needs Them: Yes on Initiative 677,” focused on the pro-queer ballot measure to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment and in labor unions. Unfortunately, this fight for statewide fair employment protection was lost at the ballot box.
Thus far the careful integration of protest and celebration worked again for Seattle’s queer community and the event rolled out as expected.
This was also the first year a Trans Pride March and Rally sponsored by T-People was held on the Seattle Central College lawn.
1998
The struggle over how to produce the Pride March for 1998 was a continuation of the previous year’s attempt to privatize the popular community event. A new group, Pacific Northwest Pride, Inc. (PNWP) drew a few members away from FDC, and they secretly applied at the beginning of January for city permits for the June march and rally. Matters came to a head in March when FDC discovered that another group had applied for the permits they had routinely gotten since 1983.
The years-long tension came down to three simmering differences: 1) whether the organizing committee of the pride march and rally should take political positions and use the event to promote these positions; 2) whether the committee should operate as an open coalition with decisions made by majority vote at open meetings, or be run by a self-selected board of directors in closed sessions; 3) whether or not financial records should be printed in the Seattle Gay News after each year’s march and rally, a practice that FDC established early on in order to be accountable for the contributions they collected. Credit goes to Rick McKinnon, who was FDC’s trustworthy treasurer for years, with helping to maintain this open-books policy.
FDC launched a petition drive that gathered over 600 signatures in support of assigning the city permits to FDC and maintaining its open accountable model. As the deadline drew closer, however, organizers on both sides were unable to work out a solution and by default left it to the city to decide. The Seattle Special Events Committee voted unanimously on May 13 to grant the permits to FDC and once again the stalled planning moved into high gear.
On the political horizon the fight for marriage equality, which seemed a long shot, was gaining momentum. At the same time an anti-affirmative action initiative, I-200, loomed over the state. FDC chose the theme “Pride + Action = Power! Yes to Gay Marriage, Save Affirmative Action, NO on I-200.”
Another parade/march and rally drew huge numbers, but the simmering tensions were wearing down the veteran organizers who sensed the tide was turning and often felt their time would be better spent on political issues that resulted in more than one spectacular day. Furthermore, key FDC organizers had been hit hard by the AIDS epidemic, the city was pushing the event towards the Seattle Center rather than Volunteer Park, and the lure of accepting corporate contributions in exchange for advertising had its effect.
1999
Seattle made international headlines this year by shutting down the World Trade Organization’s meeting held in a town where social justice and protest run deep. It was also the 30th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.
The Freedom Day Committee broke with tradition and voted to charge an entry fee to be paid by businesses that advertised themselves in the parade/march. Up to this point, joining the march was free for any group. “We don’t want to charge people for supporting queer rights,” argued Chris Smith, the lone vote against the policy change.
The poster carried the theme, “Pride Changes Everything” and was produced with unapproved modifications that called it a parade rather than a parade/march and dropped the lists of issues to win and achievements to celebrate. For FDC, the times they were a changin’.
On a lighter note, Rev. Jerry Falwell ridiculously outed children’s TV character Tinky Winky, the purse toting violet Teletubby despised by Christian fundamentalists. FDC, however, warmly welcomed Tinky Winky look-alikes with some real love at Seattle’s Pride.
The rally emcees were Gaysha Starr and Mark Findley. Speakers were Radical Women member and author of Gay Resistance: The Hidden History, Tamara Turner, lavender cowboy Patrick Haggerty from the Seattle Liberation Front, Luma Nichol from the United Front Against Fascism, Richard Markishtum a two-spirited Makah tribal member, Tina Podlodowski Seattle City Council member, Washington State Representative Ed Murray, and Jackie Rahimi a Latina singer, and civil and immigrant rights activist.
Conservatizing trends in the national queer movement were mirrored in Seattle. The Freedom Day Committee continued for a short time but was replaced by a corporate model that ceased to be a coalition. Today, the planning process for Seattle pride activities is done by a self-appointed board of directors and bank-rolled by corporations. But youthful and radically minded activists keep pushing the fight for queer rights and liberation forward in other arenas.
FDC taught a generation of activists and organizers the effectiveness and snags of coalition work. It functioned best when conducted democratically and in a spirit that accounted for everyone’s concerns and adopted a program based on the working-class ethic of joining together to confront and win against bigotry and discrimination. If we believe that an injury to one is an injury to all, we will defend each other, and no one will be left behind. There is true celebration in these acts of solidarity.