Comments on And Now... The Seattle Gay Pride Organizing Committee Says It's Not Disbanding, It's Not Filing For Bankruptcy, and the Downtown Pride Parade is Back On

YEAH!

Awsome! (wow, that's really going to throw a wrench in the LGTB Community Center's plans isn't it?)

Am I reading that right? WOW! Fucking A !! That is awesome! The parade should be downtown, where it represents all of the LGBT community of SEATTLE. Congrat SOAP. Where do I sign up to help. My eyes have been opened and am now awake! We can't sit on our asses. This is our pride and we need to help make it happen... or it could just go away!

SOAP, although the festival at Seattle was a FINANCIAL mess, my partner and I could not be happier that the parade will stay downtown...where it belongs! See you there!

Now lets get Three Dollar Bill or The Tacky Tourists to organize a party at ME Park or the Seattle Center. No reason that one group should have to do it all.

Awesome!

And this time, ahem, "STAY THE COURSE". This is the ONLY way to do this thing correctly at this time. I can't wait for the stranger's float awards!

When I read this post I had to think if it was April 1 or not. I hope that SOAP can capitalize on this moment and do some fundraising for the parade NOW. I would definitely pitch in to help keep the parade downtown.

If the LGBT Ctr is truly interested in bringing the community together, they will take the energy they were planning on using for the Cap Hill event and use it to throw a kickass event at the Seattle Center (if there's still a possibility of getting whatever permits are needed). Could be a win-win situation for the Ctr - they have an opportunity to get back in the graces of the many queers they just royally pissed off, and still generate the visibility and even cash they desire if they focus their fundraising efforts on this.

Thank God!

Can we please add our youth/young adult stage at the end of the parade route.....maybe at VERA?

Can we please add our youth/young adult stage at the end of the parade route.....maybe at VERA?

I agree with number 5. The tacky tourists can throw a damn good production and they have 25 years to back it up. It would be great if they could do this as well as their cruise.

Excellent! (And keep us posted about the Rat City Rollergirls' plans)

No way was I throwing down cash to fly to Seattle for the LGBT Center's Broadway Gay Pride Craft Bazaar or whatever (and as much as I like Chicago, there's nothing nicer than Seattle in the summertime).

Hopefully the two groups can do the impossible, though, and work on independently-but-together on their own events which, combined, will make for a massive, awesome festival where everyone contributes, everyone gets what they want, and everyone is happy.

YAHOOOOO!
One way to make sure this happens is to DONATE, DONATE, DONATE. I will and you all should too.

I just went on SOaP's website (seattlepride.org) to make a donation, but there's no donation page... not even an address to send a check. Come on folks, people are wanting to open their wallets for you! You need to make this easier.

SOaP... Get an F-ing clue now please...

Perfect. I’m getting all my friends to party down the street with Pride, watch some great roller derby at the Key, and then head to the all-out, into-the-night dance party in the Seattle Center fountain. Sounds like the fuckin time of my life!!!

It is nice that Pride Inc. is going to lend a hand to the parade. But we do not need professionals to guide us. We have no need for corporate sponsors. In fact this year many of us will be undermining the sponsors by carrying eleborate signs that mock all of the corporate sponsors.
When the the first pride days happend there were no professional groups involved. That was a good thing.
Since we did it then, it will be much eaiser now for us to make the day political again. The organizers may object, but they will be powerless to prevent us from subverting the commerical nature of the event. If is looses corporate sponsors, so be it. They need the community much more than we need them.

So everybody make up your own signs and just march as if the event belongs to the rank and file members of the community. It does.

re: 15... Looks like SOAP's website is coming back online. I checked it out and there is a donate button on there to donate via PayPal! I made a 50.00 donation! That is all I could spare for now. Come on everyone. SOAP did the right thing by keeping the parade downtown, so now we need to DONATE, DONATE, DONATE... and HELP HELP HELP.

re: 15... Looks like SOAP's website is coming back online. I checked it out and there is a donate button on there to donate via PayPal! I made a 50.00 donation! That is all I could spare for now. Come on everyone. SOAP did the right thing by keeping the parade downtown, so now we need to DONATE, DONATE, DONATE... and HELP HELP HELP.

My head is spinning, I think I'll just book tickets for Toronto Pride that weekend.

LGBT should throw a block party! That way they are still heavily involved and everyone can end up on the hill for evening bar hoping.

OKAY. SOaP's site is online again with a PayPal link.

PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTHS ARE AND DONATE NOW, PEOPLE. If you love Pride downtown so much, then make it happen.

good news!! I am glad to hear the are going to move forward to throw the parade and work on their debt. There is plenty to do that day, the bars must be rejoicing. The parade for me was always such an eye roll to go to but when I thought it wasnt happening I was totally bummed! What a bitter queen I apparently was LOL

...im off to their website to DONATE!

Chester, your an idiot.

Thanks for the website update. I just donated online.

I don't quite get all this love for SOAP. They're the nincompoops that got us in this mess in the first place with their financial incompetence and mishandeling of the transition from Cap Hill to DT. Don't get me wrong; I think the main parade SHOULD be downtown and Pride WAS a success in many regards last year. They can be praised for taking Pride to a new level of enpowerment and condemned for some heavy handedness and fiscal stupidity, (which is also what helped kill the Monorail; I sense a theme here...)I also think that future Pride Events need to involve BOTH DT/Seattle Center AND the Hill. If SOAP wants to put on a parade this year, fine; everyone should come together and support that with their time, creativity and money. They also need to disband the day AFTER Pride and some fiscally responsible, intelligent, fence mending individuals need to come together to form a group to put on future Pride events that do what Pride events are suppossed to do, unite the community and do it in a fun, creative, safe and fiscally responsible manner. The constant bullshit HAS to stop.

Wow. Yeah. Whew* I mean, I was just so worried about that. Just a wreck. Hardly slept last night.

Michael, Shouldn't they at least wait until after they have paid their debts to disband (if they do)?

I'd like to see Pride organized by an organization for which Pride is its sole concern, with limited paid positions held by actual professionals. Look at Three Dollar Bill as the local model.

The other thing that needs to happen is that they (we) need to stop worrying about consensus, and listening to and mollifying every whiney fringe of the community. There is a real danger there. We need fiscal responsibility, professional experience and leadership skills. No more of this planning though committee bull-shit.

Too many cooks spoil the broth.

Im with you, if they disband they lose any potential to raise funds and pay off their debt

For an event intended to unite a community and express pride, it sure is creating a lot of division and embarassment.

#29 I completely agree with you.

SOAP needs to put on the parade, then CEASE functioning as THE Pride organizing organization for future Seattle pride events and do the honorable thing and attempt to pay their debts. NO ONE from that group who took a LEADERSHIP role should take any role in ANY future pride organizing committee/group, (meaning anyone who handled finances or bungled the political transition from cap hill to dt). The 'little folks', the Mr and Ms Volunteers who sweated and toiled in the trenches for SOAP would be welcomed with open arms to assist with future events...they didn't do anything wrong...you don't punish the privates 'cause the generals fucked up the war...

I think that’s because there are still a lot of misguided nut jobs who still think that it is still a “protest march” and thus primarily political when in actuality it is now a celebration, not a protest. The march had its time and place. Thankfully it is less relevant today. Unfortunately all the political action fringe groups are still fighting over its corpse instead of realizing that it has evolved into something else.

So promote the privates, make them generals and let them run SOaP and put the parade on next year. Or are you shilling for another organization with another plan... (If so please share.)

As far as "financial stupidity" goes, I think what they proved last year is that there is no financial support in Seattle. Everybody wants a party, but nobody wants to pay. What did they gather in donations last year, $120? For a $100,000 debt?

And people like Chester think they should lose the corporate sponsors and make some signs instead. Yay, handmade signs. Remember to reinforce those stereotypes.

Seriously, your parade needs a cash infusion. And a creativity infusion. Fewer signs, more funny floats and dance troupes. Because it would be sad if increasing acceptance in society meant crappier parades. Going downtown was the just the first step. It should be at least as big a deal as the St. Paddy's day one.

nope...you need fresh meat but meat that is responsible and knows how to put on a festival...Seattle is the city of a 100 festivals...most of them seem to go off without the bs associated with pride...there has to be some fags and dykes involved with Seafair or Fremont Solstice that can give us some advice and a business model...i don't even care if they're straight; it might even be a good idea to have non-partisans involved...

fnarf is also right...its such a typical gay thing that we think bigger is better...we have to stop being 'size queens' and improve the quality....

and soap didn't try that hard to solicit money from people last year...the folks at Fremont make sure they have people passing the hat several times through the course of the parade...

Um. Ok.

So, does this mean Rat City Rollergirls are GO?

FNARF is 100% correct. What SOaP seems to have failed to grasp is that while the parade is one day out of the year, they need to spend the rest of the year funding it by raising donations through fund raisers and tapping corporate sponsores. They only showed up for work one day last year, and were on sheduale to repeat that performance this year.

We Queers are so fickle. What a damn mess.

RE: 18

Big signs that badmouth corporate sponsors seem like they are designed to retard the gay community's intergration into mainstream american culture.

Have we not been working towards equal inclusion and acceptance?

why should people give them money when they've shown that they're not capable of handling finances for something this big? Before anyone gives them money they need to prove to the community that they realized the fucked up big time, putting the whole thing in jeopardy, and that they've taken steps to correct it. like bring in someone who has a finance background. or a consultant. or something.



stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.



how about some accountability and a fiscally sound PLAN before everyone empties their pocket book?



and so long as dan is getting credit for being a hero by stating the obvious, i mentioned the paypal link yesterday so i'm going to take credit for that one, too ;)

Oh great, we're going to have a parade, where the freaks of our community can get their 30 seconds (e.g., fat go-go boys, drunk drag queens, etc.) or corporations can sell their wares (e.g., Bud Light, Starbucks). The point of the Pride celebration is to build community, and IMHO, community building happens at the festival, where people can interact with each other and with the organizations that support the community. Those organizations have now been thrown to the wolves, so what is the point?

SOAP's failed financially last year because of low sponsorhip funds. This was hindered by the opposing events and forces on CapHill. Even with this, SOAP needed to entice savvy, clever sales and marketing people to step up and grab this money. They needed to use basic sales savvy to get these sponsorships. They did not because those people were not on board, on Board. They had/have hanger-on's and other people who were just trying to shine their name doing as little work as possible hoping that everything would just fall into place.
SOAP only failed financially. Our community loved the event last year, but were not enticed to donate what they could. Simply choose the right people for your team and all these financial woes will be resolved.

IMHO

When the funding flap first went public in February, I was alarmed how few in SOaP leadership knew about the outstanding bill... Contrary to the populist solution for just about any problem, Seattle Pride doesn't necessarily need to re-invented from scratch... So much of last year's event was a major success -- with the notable exception of finances... Let the people who did a great job with their pieces continue on -- but SOaP needs ADDITIONAL help in the form of prudent volunteers to help with a fundraising plan -- not wholesale change in the entire organization... Kudos to the volunteers who have stepped up in recent weeks to create a workable solution and put there faces out there in the middle of the storm.

Having served on the board of the Freedome Day Committee (now SOaP) a few years ago, I have the greatest respect for those who are volunteering their time to put on such a wonderful show for our community. They work to produce an event that is inclusive of many groups with often conflicting ideas of what the event should be, and take a great deal of abuse along the way. In the end we have always had an exciting and enriching Pride that pulls tens of thousands of us togeather for an event like no other in our state.

Everyone has an opinion on how Pride should be run, or how to finance it, but VERY VERY VERY few people actually volunteer or donate money to the event. These businesses on Capitol Hill that people say form the heart of our community and the reason pride should be kept on Broadway give almost no money and, to my knowledge, no volunteers to help with the events. I am sure some of you can come up with exceptions, but exceptions do not fund an event of this size. To make matters worse, many of the businesses threaten SOaP and their sponsors with retaliation if any aspect of the event threatens their profits FOR ONE DAY!

I am thrilled that the parade will continue, and that it will do so downtown. We've grown up as a community, and it was time that our parade did too. I am sad to see the festival canceled, but surely we can find our own way to celebrate without sponsored events and high-priced food (which also didn't make a whole lot of money for SOaP).

I know several of the people involved in planning pride, and these are not stupid, incapable folks. They are doing their best to plan an event with very high expectations on a shoestring budget. They have made a committment to keeping the events free for the public, thus sacrificing revenue for equal access to all regardless of economic ability. That ought to be worth something, and if it takes a year without a festival for it to sink in, so be it. We all need to open our wallets, and help pay for an event that has brought so much to our community. I'm donating right now, please do the same.

The more I think about this, the more pissed off I get. Therefore, I am calling for a boycott of the parade by our local community organizations. If you are in leadership in any of those organizations, you should be asking yourselves how your organizations can justify paying the entry fee for the parade without the corresponding benefit offered by the now-defunct festival, where all of your membership and fundraising occurs. I'm not saying we shouldn't have a parade, but we should stop pretending it has some benefit other than an excuse to get drunk or to get almost everyone laid at least once this year.

Turn the parade into what it is destined to become--an advertising opportunity for "supportive" businesses, like Bud Light, and an opportunity to say to the world, "Hey, look at us. Ain't we neat?"

"Sounds like he’s been listening to Dan." Listening to Dan is bad news waiting to happen. What ever this man backs be it the Iraq War, the Monorail, or last years Gay Parade, turns to shit.

My ass, at least your name fits. You're an idiot. Why don't you and Chester just go out of town that weekend, and take your hand-lettered signs with you.

Oh, and Gay Jesus, you should go also. You're looking kind of tired.

Do you carry a hefty balance on your credit card(s) that you’re s-l-o-w-l-y paying off? Are you still paying off student loans, years after you graduated? Have you ever bounced a check or missed a payment? Then you have “fucked up” financially.

SOaP has fucked up financially, too. But it’s not the end of the world, it’s something that can be resolved, and their success in moving the parade downtown far outshines their failures.

Obviously, mistakes were made. We all make them. So instead of vilifying a volunteer organization for making a huge leap forward and stumbling some along the way, why not step up and help them out? Donate some time, donate some money, just do something other than bitch and moan about what other people are trying to do for YOU and the community as a whole.

Why do you make me so happy, Bitter Queens need vactions too?

It's my sunny disposition, Gay Jesus. The glass is always at least half full.

Bitter Queens! Very cute, but you don't give me or others enough credit. Some of us are smart business people who see a needless waste of money and who feel an overwhelming responsibility to our non-profit organizations to make better business decisions about spending precious resources. Certainly, you wouldn't expect a for-profit business to throw good money after bad, would you? If you were a shareholder, you'd expect the leaders of the company to make better decisions than that, wouldn't you?

Well, then, pretend that the entire LGBT community is a shareholder, collectively and individually, of our local orgs. Don't misunderstand me--I think Seattle should have a parade. I just think that those of us in leadership roles in our local orgs should run them for the benefit of the community (our "shareholders"), not the misdeeds and miscalculations of others (i.e., SOaP). You wouldn't expect careful stewards of other people's generosity to mishandle donations in the manner you all are advocating, would you?

Hey, Gay Jesus! How 'bout San Francisco the last weekend in June?

My Ass: Right... Because the San Francisco Pride Parade has no corporate sponsorship and confines it's self to the Gay Ghetto. Right? Get a clue you useless tard.

All these bitter people advocating boycotting the parade, monday-morning quarterbacking about what kind of job the VOLUNTEERS at SOAP did last year-- how many of you actually lifted a finger to do anything to help last year? (no, lifting a beer glass does not count). How many of you donated in the boxes?

Probably none, because probably none of you even went to the parade-- or the festival-- last year. No, you were too busy pouting because you didn't get your way, to stage the same sorry-assed ragtag tired march on CapHill again.

Just about everyone who actually WENT last year knows how great it was and how much better the festival was, than it's ever been on Broadway. Yes, SOAP made mistakes-- they got no help and nothing but resistance from the usual suspects (to wit, what we're seeing again this year by the same crowd). Tha crowd is delighted with the failures-- they have been quick to pounce on the change to scamper right back up the hill to Broadway again. Anyone who idealistically expects this group to "pitch in" now will be disappointed.

We all saw how good it can be downtown, and we should all rise to the challenge to save it. Because it can be saved.

For his craziness in past posts, mr. strangeways actually has a great idea: SOaP needs to make sure the parade happens, then get the hell out of the way and put future parades in the hands of people who know how to put events together without crumbling under pressure or accruing massive debt.

@54: Speaking of useless tards . . .

The point is that SF doesn't fuck its local organizations by charging a huge parade entry fee at the same time it cancels the GOD DAMN FESTIVAL during which the local orgs collect donations and new members and distribute information and all of the other things that are the point of Pride: building community.

SOaP is running the parade this year for one purpose, which has nothing to do with the historic and relevant purpose of Pride celebrations: It is paying off its bad debt. Very altruistic.

So fuck you.

Drama mamas! Lest we forget, last year's Pride was a giant success, save for one colossal screw-up:

Somebody from last year's SOAP group failed to communicate to that Seattle Center was going to cost $100,000.

The group may be inept at fundraising -- but they did a great job with the event.

To my mind, this shows a need to add volunteers with the needed skills -- not start from scratch.

An independent Audit Committee for SOAP sounds like a nice start.

The SOaP board leadership now is different than the board who made the decisions about the 2006 festival.

The current SOaP board is the only group that is working to support just the community. The members are all volunteer, they don't own any company that benefits from any of the Pride activities, and they certainly don't seem to be doing it for ego.

They inherited a debt and have tried to make a plan to pay it off. They could have raised more sponsor money had it not been for self-interested people in the community working to block sponsorship.

They seem like the right people to be doing this. Far from perfect, but good, hard working, honest people not motivated by self-gain.

I, too, don't understand the SOAPlove. They're massive fuckups who cant pay their bills or organize their event.

I don't care where the parade happens. I'm just sick of the community looking like assholes and idiots.

Support for SOAP at this point is like battered wife syndrome. It's possible to leave but some people keep going back. I've always admired Dan on his political positions. But this one really strains his credibility.

So soap decided to cut the festival and other Gay orgs participation because pot head Dan pulled that idea out of his butt? Can Soap think for themselves, is this really what the Gay comminity wants?

Yes, this financial mess should not have happened last year. But fixing it now is more honorable than walking away from the debt. I'm sure the "Queerfest" supporters were rejoicing at the impending demise of SOAP, clearing the way for their tired little march on Broadway. I will be shocked if they do anything for the good of the community to help make the downtown parade successful.

And SOAP and the community is not doing anything just because Dan Savage told them to. SOAP's detractors can't seem to grasp there is a LARGE percentage of us who want it downtown again. Bickering and organizing competing events, the Gay "Community" Center thinks they speak for the majority. They don't. That's why many of us are putting our money where our mouths are and donating NOW, better late than never.

My head is about to explode. Seriously, JimS@62. How does this Pride parade idea fix anything?

Frankly, I am happy to let bygones be bygones. I hold no ill-will for last year's mistakes. However, I will not stand by and allow additional mistakes to be made in order to fix last year's mistakes. Quoting George W., "Fool me once . . . shame on . . . shame on you . . . . . . If ya fool me, I can't get fooled again"

And let me also understand something: You are donating money to an organization that, intentionally or not, got itself in trouble financially and for which, to be honest, there is little real harm (bankruptcy is an easy out for an organization that doesn't want to exist anyway). Meanwhile, people are dying of AIDS or starvation or mental illness or a host of other social ills. Please don't tell me that you want us to divert our charitable efforts to SOaP.

I can't get behind an idea that cuts our local orgs out of Pride. It's a bad idea, much worse than declaring bankruptcy and/or handing this son-of-a-bitch over to another organization that can run it responsibly.

wow...i'm stunned....Gomez-said-something-kind-of-complimentary-about-me.....(swoons)

thanks, man...the meds must be working for me today...

I hate to jump into this fray, other than to murmur quietly that, during my years as an event planner at several downtown hotels, a cash deposit was always required, based on the estimated price of the event. Additionally, we also required organizational representatives to sign off on what we thought the final cost would be. I can't imagine that the Seattle Center didn't do the same thing - especially since most of their event planners came from those same hotels (or did, back in my day)

Historically speaking, pride has always been about drama. Back when the socialists were in charge, the meetings were held in hot little portable classrooms at SCCC. There was always tears, and at least one walkout at every meeting I went to (if it hadn't been so stuffy in those portables, it would have made for great theatre). The meetings were always dominated by one particular woman who usually got her way, mostly because she could scream louder and longer than everyone else.

But I must say the drama is starting very early this year - usually the big tearful storm-outs happened a few nights before the big event.

"The meetings were always dominated by one particular woman who usually got her way, mostly because she could scream louder and longer than everyone else" = Shannon Thomas from the LGBT Center

Seriouly though, does it seem a little strange to anyone else that the donation boxes only collected around a hundred bucks last year? How many boxs were there?

The one thing we should all be able to agree on is that SOAP is a dishonorable, poorly managed, financially irresponsible organization. Voilunteers with good intention? Sure. Capable of uniting a community - much less throwing a parade? No.

Any further support of SOAP is a huge mistake, a discredit to the lesbian/gay community.

Again - I don't care where the parade is. But SOAP needs to be cut out of the picture.

@68: Get a fucking clue. 200,000 + people were on the parade route last year. So I think they can throw a parade and bring people together. Drama is our nature...deal. Everyone is so complacent and sits on their ever growing fat ass. I have been to SOAP meetings. I have seen their meeting announcements... one or two people from the community shows up. Pathetic. It is amazing they did as good as job as they did, a volunteer group of 10. This is in addition to their own lives, and jobs. Good job SOAP. I will be donating and spreading he news!

Bottom line is SOAP is not a tax-exempt non-profit and I don't believe they have still filed as a charity with the State.

Consumers and sponsors should know before they make all those blind donations.
Its very telling when Seattle Center and EIS bent over backwards to work things out and even they pulled out.
(there is a joke in here but I'll leave that to someone else to play off of - Dan?:)

(Why do I get the feeling SOAP is milking the public at the last minute for money before they file bankruptcy?)
Fool me once but not twice.

Getting 200,00 people to show up, filing for bankruptcy to the tune of $100,000+, leaving small vendors in the lurch, attracting front page news headline about a community divided and poor community organizational management, and making us all look like fools in a time when there are real issues that affect our community daily at City Hall and in Washington D.C. is not success. It is shameful.

I do not accept the fact that "drama is in our nature." This is adolescent behaviour run amok. We all deserve better.

SOAP needs to go.

I say if we can't have another Seattle Center festival, don't bother having the parade down town... Just do it on Broadway.

So these 72 emails are a good representation of why I CAN"T STAND officially participating in any gay organized event or gay organization.

More power to those of you who can stomach this stuff and 'being involved in the gay community'. Personally I'd rather put burning shards of glass into my eyeballs then be involved in gay politics or in gay organizations. It's really too bad. We can't even throw a parade without coming to blows every year.

Au Contraire Mon Ami!
We threw two parades last year!