This weekend, there will be Pride celebrations across Capitol Hill even as challenges in Seattle, across the nation, and around the world cast their shadows. Two major celebrations will lead the way as Friday’s Trans Pride Seattle rally and party again fills Volunteer Park and Saturday’s PrideFest Capitol Hill spans five blocks of Broadway, Denny, and Cal Anderson Park. Both events are free to attend.

• FRIDAY — TRANS PRIDE SEATTLE — 5 – 10 PM VOLUNTEER PARK: Friday’s event runs from 5 to 10 PM and will fill the Volunteer Park amphitheater stage with speakers and performers: Now in our twelfth year, Trans Pride Seattle stands as a radiant testament, honoring and carrying the torch of our Transcestors who originated Pride as a means of both resistance and cultural communion. We gather here in celebration of Trans life. To be Trans is to be powerful. In each of us is the power that comes from dreaming, from forging new paths, from becoming. We are not bound by the limitations of what is, but illuminated by the infinite possibilities of what we can create. What profound gifts we bring to this world. Our celebration is survival and our survival is celebration. We gather here in vibrant defiance of the violence, dehumanization, and political attacks on our lives. We gather because we dare to imagine—and demand—a world where all people can live truly, safely, and freely. Trans Pride is not just a festival. It is a declaration: We are divine. We are powerful. We are the past, the present, and the future. We are unstoppable. More: transprideseattle.org
• SATURDAY — PRIDEFEST CAPITOL HILL — NOON to 8 PM BROADWAY & CAL ANDERSON: Capitol Hill’s biggest event is back, and PrideFest is still 100% free for all. The event spans five blocks of North Broadway, Denny, and Cal Anderson Park. This year, with FOUR stages of entertainment for all ages! More: seattlepridefest.org
• PRIDE WEEKEND: Venues across Capitol Hill are hosting parties and festivals of their own. Check out the CHS Calendar Pride Listings.

This June’s Pride celebrations come amid a rush of recent challenges to the city’s queer communities.

Earlier this year amid economic turmoil and Trump administration attacks on civil rights, CHS reported on a call for support from PrideFest organizers amid a nationwide downturn in support for LGBTQ organizations and queer causes and “sponsorship challenges across the country for organizations like ours.”

Attacks on queer communities and reproductive rights have also hit close to home. CHS reported here on Cal Anderson and City Hall protests against anti-trans Christian groups and the city denying an effort by religious organizers to return to the popular Capitol Hill park later this summer.

Meanwhile, the group Friends of Denny Blaine continues to seek community solutions after a wave of criticism pushed the Seattle Police Department to end patrols of the nude beach and the park that has continued to be a significant gathering place for queer and naturist communities despite increased complaints and legal threats from residents.

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