It’s become something of an annual ritual for a sense of crisis to be swirling around Seattle’s Gay Pride Parade. Last year, the pre-parade drama involved an intra-gay brawl over whether the parade should be moved out of the gay ghetto of Capitol Hill and into the more mainstream streets of downtown. The downtown forces prevailed, but this year, with the question of location settled, the rickety apparatus that pulls off the parade stepped up to provide the existential crisis.
While last year’s parade was a huge success in terms of turnout and adjustment to the new route from Westlake Plaza to Seattle Center, it apparently was not a financial success. Seattle Out and Proud, a wobbly nonprofit run completely by volunteers, ended up $100,000 in debt to Seattle Center after last year’s festivities, with no quick way of repaying the money. Last month, Seattle Center officials began hinting publicly that, as a result of the huge debt, they might not allow the event to happen there again.
The annual pre-parade crisis narrative was set, centering on the following question: Had the gays shaken off their geographic isolation and entered the mainstream of city life only to be undone by bills they couldn’t pay? Then on March 2, the situation was resolved with a deus ex machina that involved local promoters Marcus Charles and Dave Meinert stepping in to pay half the debt owed to Seattle Center. Under the terms of the deal, their production company, Independent Event Solutions, which puts on the annual Capitol Hill Block Party, will take over production of Pride. The plan is to make the parade profitable through sponsorships, donations from the community, beer gardens, and merchandise sales, and also to pay off the rest of the pride committee’s debt within two years.
“The goal is really simple,” says Meinert. “One, the parade is going to be stepped up a notch. The board is going to have more time to focus on making the parade better, because they aren’t going to have to do the production of the festival. And the festival, I think, is going to look largely the same as last year, but maybe with some bigger-name talent and expanded beer gardens in better locations.”
And what does it mean that the parade was rescued by two straight men?
Weston Sprigg, spokesman for Seattle Out and Proud, says the festival “should be inclusive, and having our straight allies… involved shows what Pride is really about—the whole city coming together to celebrate.”
“I don’t think it’s an issue,” Meinert says. “All we’re doing is logistical production and the execution of work. That’s always been done by a mix of people who have been straight and not straight, and that’s never been a question before. Nobody asks whether the gay and lesbian community center’s accountant is straight.” 
