Seattle Pride Parade draws record crowd

Tue., June 27, 2006

Associated Press The Spokesman-Review

SEATTLE – The largest crowds in the 32-year history of the city’s annual Pride Parade lined a new downtown route and attended a gay pride rally at the Seattle Center, organizers said.

Dale Kershner, chairman of the Seattle Pride Committee, and other organizers estimated the Sunday crowd at 150,000 or more for the parade, which featured 180 floats, and 40,000 people at the Seattle Center. Police officer Richard W. Pruitt said the numbers appeared to be much lower, but there was no official police estimate.

The march and rally used to be held on Capitol Hill, the center of the city’s gay community. Organizers said it had outgrown its old digs, so this year the event was moved downtown.

“When we are marching on Broadway, we are preaching to the choir. When we are marching downtown, we are pretty hard to ignore,” Kershner said. “This is the beginning of Pride’s coming out. For the 32 years this parade has taken place, people could say they didn’t even know it was going on.

“That will never happen again.”

Participants included state Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, and his longtime partner, Michael Shiosaki.

“There was a sense, marching down the streets today, of having arrived, of being viewed as equal,” Murray said. “I think the fact that people felt comfortable downtown is new. Michael and I hold hands on the Hill. We don’t downtown, but we did today.”

There was extra cause for celebration. Not only did the Legislature pass a measure to ban discrimination against gays this year after a 29-year battle, but an attempt to overturn it by referendum failed to draw enough signatures to make the ballot.

Parade sponsors included Starbucks Coffee and Wells Fargo. The bank company’s trademark horse-drawn stagecoach was followed by dozens of employees in T-shirts reading “Got Diversity?”

Activities at the rally included a film festival, dancing and speeches.

A smaller gay pride parade was held Saturday night on Broadway.

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