GUEST COMMENTARY
by
J ac K Ki i c.AS
The IN publication for the OUT population
F ounded 1983 • J ay B rown and R enée L a C hance
Vol. 20 No. 18
July 18, 2003
FEATURE
NEEDli/WORK: Using ink & steel to create a body
of art
p 24
NEWS
NORTHWEST • Code Pink lets peace and justice
activists show their true colors; gay man raises
awareness about long-term care for the elderly
PP 7-17
NATIONAL • Bush. Democrats dance around
marriage amendment
pp 18-20
WORLD • U.S. same-sex couples can now marry
in Vancouver. British Columbia
pp
21-23
ARTS AND CULTURE
BOOKS • Marshall Moore digs deep in order to
break the surface; searching for sperm
pp 34-35
FILM • Capturing the Friedmans proves truth is
stranger—and more elusive—than fiction
P 37
ART • Retrospective exhibit by Walt Curtis
chronicles a poet’s voice in paint
p 39
PEOPLE • Again with your kvetching? Visit Your
Jewish Fairy Godmother already
p 40
THEATER • Wade McCollum restores our belief in
musical theater
P 41
WHAT'S POPPIN'? • Cinemaniacs documented
P 42
DIVERSIONS • Catch a ride on the Orient Excess;
Rocky Horntr in Astoria; it’s pouring queer art
p 43
COLUMNS
MS. BEHAVIOR • Sexual predator or victim?
p 33
EPIQUEEREAN . Salt Lick City
p 36
OUT WITH IT! • Bravo to Bravo for two new gay
Welcome aboard
Pride doesn’t belong to the organizers, it belongs to the community
ride is over for the year. The tents are gone, all the rainbow
flags rolled up, the floats turned back into flatbed trailers, and
Dorothy has returned to Kansas. Waterfront Park even has
grass again. Time for everyone to take a break and recover.
■ ■
Except for the members of Pride Northwest, that is.
The board of Pride Northwest has already had the post-Pride wrap-
up meeting and the first meeting for Pride 2004, less than a month after
Pride 2003. When I first joined the board five years ago, we had at least
a couple of months off before we had to look at each other again.
Not anymore. Pride has become a much bigger and more expensive
event, hut the way it is put together hasn’t changed much. It’s-still a
small group of volunteers working exceptionally hard to organize an
event that endeavors to be representative of our entire diverse and varied
community. But there have been a few changes that make this easier.
The biggest and most visible change is the
fence. Some people love it, saying it makes the
festival area seem cozy and more coherent. Other
folks hate the fence. They think it separates us
from the rest of downtown, closeting us, making
us seem like animals in a zoo.
The fence was originally put up to deal with
the religious protesters. When a guy with a “God
Hates Fags" sign wanders by a beer garden full of
proud, inebriated queers, it doesn’t exactly lead to
peace and harmony. Our security folks have to
stand between them and the festival participants
to make sure no one gets hurt. There is not much
in life more ironic than having to keep the folks
who want us to bum in hell safe when they crash
our party.
But the fence does have another benefit: donations. In the past,
board members and thick-skinned volunteers wandered around the
grounds with donation buckets. You might have seen us kxiking weary
and sheepish while we intruded into your conversations asking for
money. If you happened to make eye contact, that is. In years past, festi
val participants and parade spectators donated roughly $5,000 annually.
Doing the math, based on the crowd estimates, that works out to about
9 cents a person.
Putting up the fence and asking for a donation at the gate accom
plishes two things. It allows you to enjoy the event without being
repeatedly hassled for donations. It also raises a heck of a lot of money.
Gate revenues for the past two years brought in about $30,000 annually.
D
That kind of money gives the board—and the community—a lot more
opportunities.
For one thing, we could hire an event coordinator. Someone who
could answer more than 800 calls and e-mails, arrange for insurance and
get permits for the event while providing institutional memory. This
gives Pride Northwest the time and resources to do some much-needed
board development. All these things, along with about a million others,
add up to nearly 1,000 hours during the past year.
We could also engage a national headliner, put more into the stage
decorations and make things more comfortable for our volunteers. It
allowed us to absorb the increasing costs of pennits and insurance with
a budget based on decreasing sponsorship money.
Even so, the board members still worked really hard. Three-quarters
of this year’s board had never organized a Pride event before. The new
board members climbed doggedly up the steep
learning curve and put together a great event.
The board met every other week all year, stepping
up to every week in May. The event itself is a 72-
hour marathon of exhaustion. It begins on Thurs
day night with marking the booth spaces on the
grass, followed by a trio of 16-hixir days, ending
with cleaning the park and hauling bags of trash
to the Dumpsters until well after midnight.
Yes, Pride is a lot of work, and we couldn’t do
it without help. We want to give a special thanks
to our wonderful volunteers, Ron and Jill from
Boxxes, the Olde World Puppet Theater, Deaf &.
Hearing Out Reach, Just Out, Christopher Web
ster, Jimmy Yohe, our sponsors and our partners
and families who put up with us all year long.
But most of all, we want to thank all of you who come to Pride. Your
suggestions and participation and donations keep it happening every
year. Pride doesn’t belong to the organizers, it belongs to the communi
ty. Pride is the one big event of the year that is supposed to have some
thing for everyone. To work toward this, the board needs to develop
strategies for outreach and inclusion. But most importantly we need
input from the community. Get involved, come to our meetings, tell us
what you want to see, volunteer. You could even join the board—we’re
always looking for other masochists. jFl
Pride has become a much bigger
and more expensive event, but
the way it is put together hasn't
changed much. It's still a small
group of volunteers working
exceptionally hard to organize
an event that endeavors to be
representative of our entire
diverse and varied community.
JACK K eegan is president of Pride Northwest. For more information call
503-295'9788, e-mail president@pndenw.org or visit www.pridenw.org.
series
p 43
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p 45
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