Say what you will about the Capitol Hill Pride Festival — on a hot, sticky Seattle summer day, it’s a force to be reckoned with. Part street festival and excuse to wander up and down a sunny Broadway, part expansion of the avenue’s restaurants and merchants into outdoor cafes and beer gardens, the annual event appeared to be on its way to record attendance Saturday afternoon. Now in its fifth year, the festival has matured into a staple of Seattle Pride weekend — heck, even the vendors were hawking legit gay-themed merch for a change. CHS spotted rainbow-colored cowboy hats, sno cones, underwear, yarmulkes, roach clips and camera straps. Pictures of the day including some award-winning pets from the look-alike doggy drag contest, below. We’ll also have more from the first ever Family Day in Cal Anderson and the annual Pride rugby match, soon. For more, check out our CHS Pride 2013 coverage.

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Many of Capitol Hill’s transgender residents and allies have been part of Pride through the years. Friday night, a renewed spirit powered the inaugural Trans* Pride, the first transgender-focused event to be part of Seattle’s annual celebration of LGBTQ in more than a decade.
Hundreds rallied at Seattle Central before a short march to a warm and late evening sun-bathed Cal Anderson park for speeches, music and celebration — and hugs and kisses.

Sponsored by the Gender Justice League and a roster of Capitol Hill and beyond LGBTQ organizations and businesses, the event drew transgender, gender non-conforming and intersex people from around the region and their families, friends, loved ones and supporters.

Messages from speakers and performers were varied Friday night including personal stories of overcoming barriers to work that must be done to help the trans* community at a legislative level. Marchers carried signs calling for acceptance from workplace equality to better inclusion in the greater LGBTQ community to health care issues. Some signs also allowed loved ones to show their support publicly friends and family. One sign performed a more logistical function transforming Cal Anderson’s park bathroom, temporarily, into a “Gender Neutral” facility.

Saturday’s itinerary is chock full of more ways to be part of Pride on Capitol Hill — Pride Saturday Reminders: Family Day, Broadway street festival, Dyke March & more. You can find all of CHS’s Pride 2013 coverage here. More Trans* Pride pictures, below.
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With 2013’s Seattle Pride weekend in full swing, here’s a reminder about Saturday’s busy itinerary. More CHS Pride 2013 coverage here.

• PrideFest Family Day features games, crafts, drag queen story time, magic show, performance by Recess Monkey, a bouncy house, and more. CHS story here.  Cal Anderson Park, 12 – 5p.
• Capitol Hill Pride Festival closes Broadway from E John to E Roy St. Booths, music, performances, doggie drag contest. Map and detailed event schedule is here—scroll down, down, down (keep going…) to see it. 11a – 11p.
• Rainbow Women’s Health Fair: Free services (such as massage, hepatitis C and HIV testing, chiropractic screening) and information on heart health, smoking cessation, and more. Plus, free mammogram and pap tests for those age 40+ (make an appointment by calling 206.461.4493). All Pilgrims Church (500 Broadway E), 12 – 4p.
• 4th Annual Prom Dress Rugby Match will be a blast and audience participation via purchase of penalties, possession changes and “tries” (increase a score)  are encouraged. Proceeds to benefit POCAAN. Cal Anderson Park, 2p.
• Unicorn Stampede: don your best unicorn horn (DIY) and join the herd at Cal Anderson Park at 3p to bestow blessings, grant wishes and spread smiles. At some point the herd will stampede onto Broadway and later end up at The Unicorn bar. The free Pride Party at Unicorn (8p start) includes burlesque, drag show, photo booth, carnival games, costume contest and more.
• Seattle Dyke March gathers for a rally at SCCC Plaza at 5p then steps off at 7p to go around Capitol Hill and return back to the Plaza..
• Happy 40th Anniversary, Elliott Bay Book Company! Readings from authors whose recent books have been based in Seattle: Jim Lynch, Maria Semple, and Ryan Boudinot. Elliott Bay Book Company, 7p.
• Queer Carnival Pride is  ”a night of circus tricks and party tricks and cheap tricks, a burlesque affair surely full of strippers, aerialists and knives.” Fred Wildlife Refuge, 9p.

Capitol Hill’s major contributions to Seattle’s 2013 Pride celebrations start Friday night with an event organizers hope will become an annual part of June’s LGBTQ festivities and activism. Seattle Trans* Pride is a revival and strengthening of early efforts in the city, organizers say, to seek “visibility and acceptance” for Seattle’s growing transgender population.

For more coverage of the weekend, check out our CHS Pride 2013 section.

Seattle Trans* Pride will take place June 28th, 2013
ASL INTERPRETATION AVAILABLE FROM 7 to 10pm!

5:00pm – 6:00pm – Assemble in Front of Seattle Central Community College at E. Howell & Broadway St.
6:00pm – 7:00pm – March to Cal Anderson Park
7:00pm – 8:00pm – Keynote by Julia Serano, Speeches and Call to Action
8:00pm – 9:30pm – Performances
10:00pm – 1:00am – Official Trans*Pride After Party Dance! 

Scent Free Section in both March and at Cal Anderson.
Seating Section for those will accessibility needs.
If you need mobility assistance to attend the march or
Events in the park: Please email danielle@genderjusticeleague.org

Please join us, sign up to volunteer, donate, or find out more information by visiting www.transprideseattle.org

Featuring:
Julia Serano,
Rae Spoon,
Ian Harvey, and many many more!

The Pride flag will be flying above Seattle’s City Hall again this weekend to celebrate Seattle’s 2013 parade and parties as rainbow flags have been on full display across Capitol Hill throughout June. CHS wandered the Hill’s business districts Monday afternoon to catch this year’s colors.
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It would be fitting if you arrived riding your bicycle next week on Pride Friday as St John’s Bar and Eatery will host a Freddie Mercury art gallery paying tribute to Pride, and Queen(s).

Working on the project for nine months, Northwest Artist Chuck Knigge will unveil his exhibit ‘Long Live Queen Freddie!’ on Capitol Hill June 28 at a St John’s Bar reception running from 7 – 10pm. The series of Mercury portraits are obviously Queen inspired, but not in the way you’re thinking.

“The entire series is made up of portraits of Freddie Mercury as famous queens. Some historical, like Queen Elizabeth I and Nefertiti. Some from pop culture, like Queen Amidala and Queen Latifah,” Knigge said. Previously a comic book artist, he tells CHS the gallery will show light “11 oil paintings, a few mixed media drawings, 1 print, and 2 posters.”

The mustachioed artworks will stay at St John’s Bar from June 28 to July 12 when Knigge takes his queen’s to Tacoma for the city’s annual pride event. The gallery can be viewed from 2pm – 2am during it’s stay on the Hill. If you just have to own one, the works will run from $10 to a high end of $2000 with canvas spreads from oil paintings to screen prints.

“The paintings will be for sale from roughly $400-$2000. There will be some smaller options, such as the drawings, a print, and posters ranging from $10-$60,” Knigge tells us. But if you are just a poor boy from a poor family, Knigge has your back. “There will also be a payment plan option for those looking to buy a larger piece.” The artist isn’t pocketing all of the money either, and plans to give a portion of his art sales back to the LGBTQ community.

Knigge says he will be “donating 5% of profits to the Human Rights Campaign,” and is looking into “some smaller, more local organizations, as possible alternatives.” The artist adds, “The Ghost Gallery will also be donating 5%.” If you’re walking around the Hill Friday night, and see someone bike by singing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ you know why.

If you want more from this local artist, you can check out Knigge on Facebook, and also follow the event page.

More Capitol Hill Pride 2013:

• Trans Pride to add to Capitol Hill parade roster — June 28th
• Pride on Hill expands to celebrate LGBTQ milestones with Family Day in Cal Anderson — Family Day in Cal Anderson, Dyke March, Pride Festival on Broadway — June 29th
• 4th Annual Prom Dress Rugby Match — June 29th
• Sunny scenes from the 4th annual Seattle Pride Picnic
• Hundreds sweep up Pike/Pine, Broadway
• More Pride 2013 coverage

The fourth annual Seattle Pride Picnic in Volunteer Park had everything a fourth annual Seattle Pride Picnic in Volunteer Park should have. $1 chow. Sack races. Boe Oddissey licking a woman’s face. And lots and lots of funshine. Happy Pride.

There’s plenty more Pride 2013 to come on the Hill including a full slate of events and a parade or two.

For a time, Seattle Pride was a mostly Capitol Hill affair. Over the years it has grown into a citywide event with a massive parade through the streets of downtown. This summer, an expanded slate of events will take place on Capitol Hill even as the celebration spreads across the city. This weekend, the Hill’s 2013 events continue with the annual Pride Picnic in Volunteer Park:

All the fun begins at 11:00am on Saturday, June 15 at Volunteer Park in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. There will be great food, live entertainment and activities for all ages. There will also be representatives from some great non-profits.

$1.00 donation for the picnic meal includes tacos from picnic sponsor Chipotle. Also provided are hot dogs, fresh fruit, salads, and beverages. Proceeds to benefit YouthCare and Food Lifeline.

The organizers of a new addition to Pride activities on the Hill have announced details of a new an important celebration that will mark its introduction on June 28th in the midst of the city’s 39th annual Pride celebrations. Seattle’s Trans Pride will be “a sort of ‘coming out’ party for Seattle’s increasingly visible – and vocal – transgender community,” organizers say. The Friday, June 28th parade will start at Seattle Central and march through a few blocks of Broadway and Pike/Pine before arriving at Cal Anderson. The event joins Saturday, June 29th’s Dyke March in the Capitol Hill Pride parade department. Details on Trans Pride are below:

NEW PRIDE PARADE WILL HIGHLIGHT SEATTLE’S GROWING TRANSGENDER COMMUNITY

Local Activists Seek Visibility and Acceptance

“I came on vacation to Seattle, and for the first time in my life I met other trans people.”

 “Seattle’s trans-identified community is one of the largest in America, rivaling any major city.”

“We’re your neighbors. We’re your barista. We’re developing your software,

saving your life at the hospital, shelving your books at the library.”

On June 28, 2013, two days before Seattle’s 39^th annual Gay Pride parade brings crowds to downtown Seattle, a smaller parade will wind through the streets of Capitol Hill.

This parade is Seattle’s Trans Pride (www.transprideseattle.org), and it is a sort of “coming out” party for Seattle’s increasingly visible – and vocal – transgender community.  Organizers of the parade hope it will become, like Gay Pride, an annual event.

Seattle’s Trans Pride parade will be one of the nation’s first.  Only a handful of other U.S. cities have held marches in support of transgender rights. Seattle was the first city in the nation to hold a transgender pride event in 1997. This year’s event is a much larger revival of that pioneering spirit. Continue reading →