Tomorrow afternoonâSaturday, September 22âtwo Capitol Hill apartment buildings are throwing coordinated public parties to raise money for Washington United for Marriage, the campaign urging voters to approve Referendum 74 and gay marriage in our state. (Remember to vote to APPROVE!)
The parties will run from 3:00 to 7:00pm at The Granada Apartments (1736 Belmont Ave) and five blocks away at The New McDermott Apartments (1514 Bellevue Ave). Big Mario's has donated a couple of pizzas for the events and Neumos donated a keg, which is pretty damn great.
Better still, an anonymous donor has pledged to match up to $5,000 in donations.
Planning for these parties began earlier this month, after The Stranger reported that the building's anti-gay property ownersâBreier-Scheetz Propertiesâunsuccessfully attempted to shut down a Washington United for Marriage fundraiser at one of its buildings and then immediately donated $20,000 to the anti-gay marriage campaign. The property company owns nine residential buildings on Capitol Hillâmeaning they collect rent from hundreds, if not thousands, of gay and gay-friendly residents in the neighborhood.
A Granada tenant named April resolved to raise $20,000 to counter her landlord's anti-gay donation. "We've raised almost $6,500 so far and I'm pretty confident we'll meet our goal," she says.
But in a somewhat foreboding turn of events, this week a deadbolt was installed on the door leading to the Granada Apartment courtyard, where tenants were planning to hold their party. When I called Breier-Scheetz Property to ask about the deadbolt, an employee simply hung up on me.
To donate to the pro-gay-marriage fundraiser, GO HERE. If you're a business owner who wants to pile on the love by donating more kegs/pizza/whatever to tomorrow's parties, contact April over here.
