Seattle streets packed for gay pride parade

SEATTLE – Thousands of people lined downtown streets in Seattle on Sunday to watch the city’s gay pride parade.

It was actually the city’s second parade over the weekend to recognize Seattle’s gay and lesbian population. Another march was held Saturday on Capitol Hill – the neighborhood commonly recognized for its gay population.

Sunday’s event was the second year in a row a parade has also been held downtown. But it almost didn’t happen.

The event was in jeopardy as recently as two months ago, when the organizing group, Seattle Out and Proud, threatened to file for bankruptcy, citing a $100,000 debt to the city after last year’s celebrations at Seattle Center.

But the group reorganized the event and staged the march along Fourth Avenue, with thousands of people lining the route.

Another group, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center, sponsored the Pride March on Saturday, down Capitol Hill’s Broadway Avenue, the traditional location of the parade for decades before the celebration was moved downtown last year.

“I think there was a very big divide last year, but the fact is, we’ve moved past it and we’re moving forward,” said Mark DuBois, a participant in Sunday’s parade.

“The one on Capitol Hill is for us, the (gay) community,” said Phil Goldenman, 60, vice president of the Seattle chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, at the Seattle Center on Sunday, where the parade ended with a festival. “The one downtown is for everybody to see.”