Not Grand
Pride Parade Honors Unremarkable State Legislator
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The grand marshal at this year's pride parade, in case you're wondering, was State Representative Joe McDermott, who represents West Seattle and Vashon Island in the Washington State House of Representatives. McDermott became the second openly gay member of the Washington State Legislature 18 months ago when he was appointed to a vacant seat. He's young, he's blond, and he hasn't been a member of the legislature long enough to pass any major legislation. But, hey, he's a homo.
Still, there are other homos in the state legislature. If the group that runs the parade wanted to honor a gay state legislator, the obvious choice would have to be State Representative Ed Murray. A member of the state house for seven years, Murray managed to get the first piece of pro-gay legislation out of the state legislature and onto the governor's desk since 1993. Murray had been fighting to pass his "safe schools" bill since 1997, and after five years of hard work, his bill requiring schools to take steps to combat malicious harassment of gay and lesbian students finally passed. In his time in the house, Murray also worked to protect the University of Washington from retaliation after the UW began offering benefits to domestic partners, and was instrumental in pressuring the governor to fund domestic partnership benefits for state employers.
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Murray was appointed to the Washington State House of Representatives when State Senator Cal Anderson died. (Murray was appointed to fill the house seat of Pat Thibaudeau, the state rep who was appointed to fill Anderson's senate seat.) For many years, Murray was the only openly gay elected official in Olympia, as Cal Anderson once was. Now there are three: Murray, McDermott, and State Representative Dave "My Last Name Must Be a Euphemism for Something" Upthegrove.
The famously dysfunctional group that stages the pride parade, the Freedom Day Committee, has a history of honoring legislative lightweights. In her first year on the Seattle City Council, one-term council member Sherry Harris was made grand marshal. Voters turned Harris out of office at the end of her first lackluster term. Meanwhile, the effective Cal Anderson was denied permission to speak at the rally in Volunteer Park after the parade.
"If they're treating me like they were treating Cal," Murray said when I called him, "I must be doing something right."
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