A year after its debt-saddled organizers almost pulled the plug, the 34th Seattle Pride Parade returned to the heart of downtown Sunday, with new corporate sponsors and its hallmark mix of the outré and the ordinary.
Spectators lined up five deep along Fourth Avenue's retail core to lustily cheer on gays and lesbians, buff or otherwise naked; politicians trolling for votes; and marchers touting causes including gay adoptions and recycling.
The three-hour parade featured several new corporate sponsors, including Alaska Airlines, Verizon Wireless and Safeco Insurance Foundation. Occasional showers of Frango mints, Tazo tea bags and other brand-name freebies delighted the crowd.
Seattle Out and Proud, the nonprofit group that produces the parade, estimated that 400,000 people lined the one-mile route from Union Street to Denny Way and attended the related celebrations. The parade is Seattle's second-largest behind the Seafair Torchlight Parade.
In 2006, Seattle Out and Proud racked up more than $100,000 in debt after relocating the parade and an accompanying festival from Capitol Hill, the epicenter of Seattle's gay community. The group owed the money for renting the city-owned Seattle Center to hold the PrideFest festival.
Marchers soak in the sun, gay pride
Seattle Times, United States -
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