Saturday’s counter-protest crowd faced a line of Seattle Police officers in riot gear
As the Seattle Police Department says it made eight new arrests as protesters squared off with fundamentalist Christian groups calling for the mayor’s resignation outside City Hall Tuesday night, organizers are crowing about another evangelical event they say is planned for Cal Anderson Park in August.
Mayor Bruce Harrell and Seattle officials, it seems, have a scheduling problem.
Anti-LGBTQ Christian groups said Tuesday they have a permit to hold a “Revive in 25” rally on Saturday, August 30th in the popular Capitol Hill park.
UPDATE 5/28/2025 3:20 PM: A parks spokesperson said Wednesday afternoon that the August permit “has not been granted” but went on to say that officials are working with organizers on finding a new location for the event.
“[The organizers] recently requested to move their event to a different park, and we are discussing options with them,” the spokesperson said.
Organizers from On Fire Ministries appear to be central to both Saturday’s rally and the event planned for August.
The church has grown in Spokane under Christian fundamentalist pastor and former state representative Matt Shea and is supported by the likes of anti-LGBTQ religious activist Sean Feucht. Feucht has been at the middle of a nearly identical controversy before making waves during the height of the pandemic in the summer of 2020 by holding a “Let Us Worship” concert in Cal Anderson that was part evangelical revival and part provocative protest of the state’s mask mandate and safety precautions in the face of the COVID-19 crisis. The event included communal baptism and plenty of anti-queer rhetoric in the middle of the still-closed park in the wake of the CHOP protests. Hundreds of demonstrators protested the event.
Tuesday, it was Fuecht who touted the planned August 30th rally to come later this summer.
CHS has questions out to the parks department about the claim and why the department is guiding the groups to hold events in an area core to the city’s queer communities.
We also are asking the mayor’s office and District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth what on god’s good earth they are doing about it.
Hollingsworth took time during Tuesday’s council meeting to address the weekend rally but did not mention anything about planned future events. “Hate speech is not tolerated in Seattle. The majority of Seattle wants peace,” Hollingsworth, who frequently has referenced her Christian faith since taking office, said Tuesday aftenroon. “And I will continue to work every day to model that peace and move us forward because that is what I was taught in church from day one.”
CHS reported here on Saturday’s #DontMessWithOurKids gathering in Cal Anderson and the more than 20 people arrested during protests against the anti-trans rally as a large battalion of Seattle Police armed with batons and pepper spray patrolled the edges of the permitted event.
Following Saturday’s clash between police and protesters in the park, Harrell called the gathering part of “an extreme right-wing national effort to attack our trans and LGBTQ+ communities” and said permits for the rally event were being scrutinized. Harrell said he has asked the parks department to “review all of the circumstances of this application to understand whether there were legal location alternatives or other adjustments that could have been pursued.”
New Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes, meanwhile, has not addressed the situation. Coming to Seattle following his leadership of the Madison, Wisconsin police department, the first major crowd control response by his officers echoed with the heavy handed and violent actions seen in the city from the department’s flawed response to the 2020 protests. Saturday’s arrests also follow Barnes’s back pedaling over directed patrols targeting nude sunbathers at Denny Blaine Park.
Christian group organizers, while calling for the mayor’s resignation, say they initially requested to hold the rally near Pike Place Market but were encouraged by the parks department early in the process to consider alternatives including Cal Anderson.
UPDATE: A spokesperson for the mayor’s office parks department provided a statement that doesn’t refute the claim by the May Day USA group but maintains that the group applied for the event to be in Cal Anderson.
Seattle Parks and Recreation permits a variety of events and gatherings in Seattle’s public parks – including rallies, protests, and free speech events. First amendment protections require Seattle Parks and Recreation to enable the expression of free speech throughout the parks system. Parks can only offer alternative parks for an event if the components of the event don’t fit well logistically with the amenities of a given park (utility hook ups, park layout, parking, or size of the event exceeds capacity of the park etc.).
For Saturday’s event, the organizers from MayDay submitted the event application to SPR for Cal Anderson Park (attached). Given that the park was not reserved and met the size/logistics needs for the event, the permit was granted. This is consistent with free speech requirements under the First Amendment.
The spokesperson said they will have more details about the situation around the August application soon.
Tuesday night, Christian fundamentalist groups rallied at Seattle City Hall to demand an apology from Harrell for his words as cops again tangled with counter-protesters. The groups say they are pursuing legal action over religious discrimination.
Now, in addition to looking back at how Saturday’s rally and arrests went down, Harrell’s City Hall must sort out what to do about future faith-focused events in Seattle’s public spaces — including August 30th in Cal Anderson Park.
UPDATE: A petition has been launched demanding city officials move the planned August rally.
“Based on the events of May 24th, we have serious concerns about a copycat event at Cal Anderson again,” the petition reads. “To safeguard protect the safety of all sides involves, we are asking to Seattle Parks and the Office of Economic Development relocate this event to Magnuson Park.”
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Fire everyone. How stuck on stupid can city hall get. Oh now we know.
Let’s take a look at Matt Shea’s and Sean Feucht’s history on wiki before we approve any permits. They surrounds himself with nut-jobs, picks and chooses what parts of the bible he wants to follow, ignores the rest. These guys and who ever follows, supports, and bows down to is completely unhinged, and mentally unstable.
Just because one has money doesn’t mean you should be given a permit to spew hate.
There are some categories of speech that are not protected by the First Amendment, such as incitement to violence, defamation, and obscenity. Additionally, the government can regulate speech that creates a clear and present danger.
These folks aren’t coming to Capitol Hill in good faith, they are coming to incite violence and slander our community, we all know it, history knows it, and our city leaders know it. Denying them access is not an infringement on free speech, and by approving it, the city and any one involved in the approval shall be held legally responsible for being an accomplice. Let’s just stop with the madness.
City Leaders, protect our community!
The whole point of making these total fiascos is so that future permitting doesn’t happen due to the police presence required, and we got Liberals out here posting that the best way to counter future repeats is to sit at home and ignore them, then post on a blog about how they weren’t ignore enough.
Sorry you can’t tolerate liberal approaches that contradict your own. I have three trans people in my family. I care deeply about this issue. You can find me arguing the crap over these issues with uninformed morons on Komo under SPULies. Neither of my two trans family members in Seattle attended this counterprotest.
We all understand that Matt Shea has no power unless he can be used to highlight the “intolerance of leftists” by the right, which is literally what’s happening thanks to SPD and a few dummies who took the bait. Shea was such a pariah that even House Republicans couldn’t stomach him and stripped him of his legislative powers. Russell Johnson is a non-entity who thinks having followers speak in tongues is persuasive outside of his fringe church and not at all weird or creepy.
We can agree to disagree about approaches, but dismissing those who disagree with you as useless or couch potatoes is dead wrong. If anything, liberals who couldn’t stomach voting for Hillary Clinton got us to where we are now. That’s a fact.
Religious discrimination? These hate filled bigots led by a domestic terrorist were allowed to hold an unpermitted rally at City Hall with amplified music, police protection, barricades and closed off streets and sidewalks. Freely given resources and preferential treatment our tax money pays for while other members of the public were denied entry to the same public spaces and surrounded sidewalks. The police could have shut down this illegal rally but chose to protect them and assist them in spewing their vile message on the tax payer dime. Absolutely disgusting behavior from SPD and City ‘leadership’
Matt Shea, Russell Johnson and their professsional troll army have struck gold with Seattle and Capitol Hill. Why would they stop coming back. They have what they crave – national attention, and likely months worth of fundraising video as a result. And Seattle Antifa comes out looking ridiculous for opposing them, because (as always) Seattle – Antifa cannot just let these trolls exist, they must SHUT THEM DOWN by ANY MEANS NECESSARY. Because as we all know, HATE IS NOT A FAMILY VALUE even if that means we will throw bottles at you to convince you.
Both extremist sides live for events like this.D3 residents, wary of another CHAZ CHOP happening, just want it all someplace else.
This whole thing is reminiscent of the Westbrook Baptist Church, an organization I have unfortunately had run-ins with. They would show up at queer-adjacent gatherings fully permitted and scream the most vile shit at passers by. All the while, they had members whose “job” it was to film these interactions, hoping for an altercation they could publicize and help frame themselves as victims. They also used these videos to make money (ie, threatening to sue or suing someone for assault, etc).
These evangelical ghouls knew what they’re doing setting up shop in Cal Anderson. And with the proper permitting had every right to be where they were, saying what they’re saying.
Did I like it? Of course not. But when we take their bait we give them EXACTLY what they want.
You do realize that Westboro went tits up from lawsuits, not because they had an awakening from counters, right?
Once again, make it too costly for them to do their thing, they’ll do it less.
Yes needs to happen.
Westboro, not Westbrook.
And you can take the ‘ both sides’ bus back to Spokane with those losers.
Supporting trans people on a basic level is not “extreme” stop “Both sidesing” hatred.
This guy lives in D3, constantly complains about everyone but him doing it wrong, and thinks the reason that people don’t support his docile Reagan-lite Liberalism here in D3 is unrelated to his mealy mouth bothsiderism. A true specimen of Liberalism in 2025.
Speaking of not letting trolls exist, I take this to mean that you won’t be doing any policing of counters at Cal in August?
How are you still more mad at “antifa” than people spreading hate speech? Are you a cop?
Thanks for the great coverage on this!
So parks had the foresight to move it from Pike Place market, but steered them to Cal Anderson on purpose?! Once again, city leadership and elites focused on failed quick fixes to issues to protect their bottom lines that just kicks problems down the road where they end up in our communities for us to deal with.
It’s the most buffoonish thing you could come up with
“Well, they want to mess up our tourist attraction, we won’t let that happen”
“Okay, so what’s the play, we can’t ban them entirely…what to do what to do…”
“What if we permitted them in the singular most testy spot in the entire city, the historically queer neighborhood, the major congregation spot for partisans with beef.”
“Excellent, nothing could possibly go wrong with this idea, I’m sure our stoic and measured denizens will just ignore it and all will be at peace. Especially the trans denizens, we can taunt them with anything and what are they going to do about it?”
That is what the religious group is saying and it’s a lie. Pike Place Market did not work with the type of protest they were having. The city gave them options one of them being Cal Anderson, they could have chosen SLU, but they did not. Can you guess why? They want you to turn on our elected mayor they would be so proud if they could take down the mayor of Seattle.
Yeah big fail on Parks side. Hopefully will never see this group in Cal Anderson again. Let ’em go to Magnuson or that place under the freeway with the bike trail in it. Isn’t that a park?
Are people allowed to fly drones at the park? It would be funny to get a bunch of rainbow parachutes like we use to play with in elementary school and hang them from drones and basically put a giant rainbow wall around these people so nobody can even see them.
Ha-ha love this idea
Incompetence. I’m surprised the city doesn’t have a rule like: if an event appears likely to require significant police presence for public safety reasons, event organizers must provide a deposit equal to a certain percentage of the anticipated cost of the law enforcement response, including overtime.
People should be free to exercise their freedom of speech, but they shouldn’t be permitted to have the city cover the foreseeable cost/consequences of their event. Especially when an event is such a transparent incitement intended to be used as a basis for future fundraising.
The City of Seattle has limited options for first amendment events. If they do try to find a loophole or deny the permit outright, the ADF will sue. They already are over last weekend’s event. The ADF has a team of lawyers who know how to run anti-LGBTQ cases up to the Supreme Court. Shea wants a showdown. He wins if he gets denied a permit, he wins if he gets a permit and just one protester breaks the law. The City could potentially run the permit through the special events permitting process, which has more wiggle room about how events go down, but still can’t outright deny first amendment events. As annoying as it is, the way to shut these people down is to ignore the fuck out of them. Or if there is a protest, follow the example of protesters who protected Matthew Shepard’s funeral – quiet, graceful angles with wings blocking the hateful signs from public view. More on permits here: https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/ParksAndRecreation/Reserve/Permits/Guidelines_for_a_1st_Amendment_Activity-2021.pdf
They’re not the same type of event profiles, the point of shielding a martyrs funeral was for the funeral attendees, not to break the impetus of protesting a martyr’s funeral at large.
Y’all speak like you’ve actually ever done any of the things you think should be done, but they’re all self satisfied hypothetical exercises other people are supposed to execute.
I am well aware of the differences between the two circumstances, but the tactics are important here. This group is trolling Seattle and the LGBTQIA+ communities. Never feed the trolls. If you do, they keep coming back. But since that advice is unlikely to be taken by everyone, those who do choose to counter protest should disarm the trolls through a peaceful, constructive, and symbolic demonstration that doesn’t give the trolls the food they crave to come back and consume our energy over and over again.
Christians have a First Amendment right to hold an event in Cal Anderson Park. They have the right to worship there and to express views that many residents of Capitol Hill find repugnant.
Civil rights work both ways. Just as we have the right to reject and criticize their beliefs, they have the right to reject and criticize ours. This seems to be a point of confusion for some. The same First Amendment that protects your right to express views others find offensive also protects their right to express views you may find offensive. It cuts both ways.
I was at Cal Anderson Park on Saturday afternoon and saw what happened. The Christians were not the problem. All the violence and bad behavior came from a faction within the counter-protesters.
A small subset of the counter-protesters caused the trouble, and they are fully responsible for it. These individuals were not “standing up for LGBTQ rights”; they were using the situation as an excuse for antisocial behavior. Wearing masks and claiming to defend “LGBTQ rights,” they acted like petulant children.
To be clear, many counter-protesters were there peacefully, and I’m not criticizing them at all. However, the subgroup of violent, masked counter-protesters needs to be called out and restrained.
These individuals are wrapping themselves in pride flags and behaving terribly in public. If we allow this to continue, they will tarnish the meaning of the pride flag. People will begin to associate it with their behavior. With “allies” like them, the LGBTQ community doesn’t need enemies.
No one should make excuses for what happened at Cal Anderson Park. Those who were arrested deserved it. The parks department did nothing wrong. The police did nothing wrong. The Christians did nothing wrong. And most of the counter-protesters did nothing wrong. But a group of violent, masked counter-protesters did a lot of wrong, and we should all acknowledge that.
Tell me you don’t know anything about Stonewall in 300 words.
Can you put a name to EXACTLY what violence and bad behavior you saw from the counter protesters? I was also there and the only violence I saw was from cops. The protests weren’t violent until they drew their line and started pushing protestors back. You are totally right that Christians have a right to preach, but the community also has a right to show up and counter protest. The issue is the cops choosing a side.
I agree. The Christians have a right to preach, and people who don’t like what they’re preaching have a right to protest. I’m not criticizing the vast majority of the counter protesters who were there peacefully.
As far as what I personally witnessed, the first trouble I saw was a couple of counter protesters throwing things at the Christians, and when the cops confronted them, some of the other counter protesters confronted the cops. It looked like they were all together. They were all wearing masks and a lot of them were holding umbrellas on a sunny Saturday afternoon. I don’t think those particular people intended to protest peacefully.
Clearly and repeatedly you didn’t see anything. Can you at least acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, someone else did?
Just fyi – there is literally nothing “Christian” about these bigoted, hateful and small minded people….
Totally agree. If he were to come back today, Jesus would whup their collective ass.
One guy was simply walking through the park on his way to get a haircut and got arrested. There’s video of him saying so as he gets arrested. He’s not in all black. He’s not masked. Just a guy. Just like the colorfully dresses peaceful protestors who got arrested for just being nearby a downed guardrail.
Wow…That’s something. “The Christians” are ALWAYS the problem. You ever see a Jan. 6 tape?
“The Christians” came to Cal Anderson to play the “I’m not touching you” game. Knowing their very presence is an issue. Out of all the places on Earth? They came here for the sole purpose of media coverage.
Calling it “The Rattle in Seattle” I seriously thought it was a Emerald Queen boxing event for a nanosecond.
“We didn’t do anything” is a cop out.
Yeah no. Why do Christians have a right to their anti- LGBTQ free speech in the heart of the LGBTQ community? They have a right to free speech but they don’t get to pick their venue. So Parks did something wrong or, at least, stupid in granting this permit. Black bloc did something wrong cuz black bloc. So tired of their continual hijacking valid protests for the sake of anarchy and nihilism.
The counter-protest should be a big-ass glittery dance party. Capitol Hill is about joy, freedom, and fun, so let’s show them why we live here! They want us to take the bait and emulate their hatred and violence. Instead, let’s drown out their preaching with a party.
Good idea, wonder how much henpecking over spontaneous nudity there would be from the usual dismal cast of characters.
Sounds like we need to get to the park on the 29th and fill it up! No room for hate in this city!
Anyone have an org that can secure permits for cal Anderson on Aug 30 so that they can’t? Let’s make it something peaceful and chill and loving. How about a plant trade or an end of summer yoga meet up or a community potluck?
“Hate speech is not tolerated in Seattle”
“But also, sure here’s another permit to come spew anti LGTQ hate speech in the heart of Capitol Hill”
…
Liberal municipal governance says “Look, we really care about you but on top of everything else going wrong for you, you just gotta take another lump and do nothing about it, again. Sit tight for the rest of your life on this”
And then a chorus of couch potato liberals will hoot and holler about votes in D3 that have only ever gone against this shit at the national level and state level not count for shit once more.
The mayor is upset because he prefers low key discussed towards the LBGT community. A much more intelligent way of disliking the gays. Glad to see he has his limits.
At every level, the city guiding groups like this to set up their events at Cal Anderson is asinine. Just purely from an optics standpoint, asshats like Matt will use this to further paint Seattle as a hedonistic warzone, instead of what actually happened – a community reacting to having their park taken over by people whose only reason for being there is to spread hate against them. Seattle is already getting hit by the Trump administration in every way. Incidents like this will just be used for fodder against the city as a whole. Plus, it only further sows distrust in the community against cops! Now the whole of Cap Hill feels like out of town hateful nutjobs are prioritized by the cops (and city) over the local community. Any efforts being made by the city and SPD to ingratiate themselves to local LGBTQ+ communities now feel meaningless.
The thing you tap on is alienation from The State and whether we even really have a say on how it operates. You look at shit at the highest level with J6ers getting pardoned while protestors from 2020 still sit in jail or prison for throwing things, you look at how there are out in the open threepers and other white nationalists in law enforcement, you look at how Liberal putzes who center themselves between two poles only have words for the left pole because it doesn’t have any power in The State while the right pole does, and it’s like…
If the entire Liberal ecosystem wants people to believe they are disposable nobodies who are only good for a vote at most, they wouldn’t do much different.
Would be interesting to see a flash mob coincide with the August event; these used to be somewhat regular in Seattle, including in Cal Anderson. Rehearsals used to take place in CA as well. Such feel-good, positive community energy
Need to be smarter… Honestly, leave them alone and don’t show up. They know what they are doing, and if we continue to show up, we give them what they want. Let them have their hundred people dancing around to Jesus, whatever, and be on their way. They came back because the Cal Anderson thing played out just how they wanted it to. Now they have the federal government investigating for acts of not allowing freedom of religion.
This isn’t where our efforts are needed…
These religious groups have discovered that they can stir up a community with their hateful rhetoric and then sue municipalities by claiming religious discrimination after they get some pushback. Just look up Christ Church out of Moscow, Id lead by the loathsome Doug Wilson. They are of the same ilk as Matt Shea and his bunch. This group is looking for a payday.
What’s the grossest park in Seattle? Issue a permit for that. They’re not from here they don’t know. Send them stock footage from gasworks.