As has been the case across the country, Spokane's annual Pride event has faced financial uncertainty over the last few months as many major sponsors have decided to halt their recurring sponsorships. If you were to compare the 2024 sponsor list to this year's, you'd notice the absence of large brands, such as Nütrl (an Anheuser-Busch brand), Walmart and Verizon.
Spokane Pride Executive Director Matt Danielson doesn't know if these companies are forgoing their Pride support because of the economic instability caused largely by President Trump's tariffs, to avoid partnerships with "DEI organizations," or something else entirely. All he knows is that his team has had to work hard to make up tens of thousands of dollars in corporate sponsorships.
"It's been a roller coaster, but I'm kind of a blind idealist. I know the community will be there. If Pride was suddenly not going to happen, and we put that out there, the community would make Pride happen," Danielson says. "People care deeply about what we do, and I always knew that deeply — despite the crushing anxiety of sponsor after sponsor backing out. So at the end of the day I knew we're gonna be OK, we just had to get creative."
Despite the loss of these corporate funds, Danielson says Spokane Pride, which is on Saturday, June 14, in downtown Spokane and Riverfront Park, has raised enough to carry on last year's success: a large parade, five performance stages, and vendors throughout the park. And the organization has been able to do it with more local support than ever.
"The silver lining of sponsors like Anheuser-Busch dropping is we get to have local brewers involved with us now," Spokane Pride President Jacob Schwartz says. "With the amount of money they typically sponsor us with, [Anheuser] got an exclusivity contract in the beer garden. So this year, while we're not getting the money from Anheuser, we're also not getting the exclusivity contract."
This has allowed Pride to partner with local breweries, including Hat Trick, Natural 20 and Humble Abode, to stock the beer garden with local kegs. Danielson says Dry Fly Distilling has also agreed to supply vodka, gin, whiskey and cases of its canned cocktails.
"Not only is it just pride in our queer community, but pride in our local community and our local businesses, too," Schwartz says. "Getting to actually partner with our local brewers, especially because Spokane has an absolutely phenomenal brewing industry, is really awesome."
This year, one of the largest sponsorships, at $10,000, comes from the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane. Bishop Gretchen Rehberg, who pulled the money from her discretionary fund, has supported LGBTQ+ causes in the past, like when she promised to match donations to repaint the downtown Pride mural when it was defaced last year.
"I'm excited that churches are stepping in," says Schwartz, who's also a member of the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane. "To have faith communities, especially from the traditions near where I grew up in not only not being anti-Pride, but really pushing to make sure that they're invested in our community has been earth shattering to me."
Gonzaga University's Lincoln LGBTQ+ Resource Center also made a significant contribution to Pride.
"The gay kid in me that grew up fundamentalist Christian is like, 'Oh, my God, the Christians are saving Pride right now," Danielson adds with a smile.
This year's Pride theme, "Here to Stay," is more a statement of resistance than anything, Danielson says.
"The world did kind of change around us, I mean, Pride didn't change. We're a celebration of love and diversity and acceptance of people for who they are," he says. "No matter what happens in the world, there are going to be queer people, this community is going to be here, and the more people try to keep us down or put us in our place, the bigger Pride is going to be."
Spokane Pride has grown exponentially in the past decade. When Danielson began working for the organization in 2016, there were about 5,000 Pride attendees in the open grass space where the Numerica Skate Ribbon now sits. During the pandemic they hosted pop-up and drive-through events, but by 2022 there were close to 40,000 attendees filling Riverfront Park.
Sat, June 14 from 10 am-9 pm, free, all ages
Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard St.
spokanepride.org
Danielson utilizes cellphone data to capture attendance for Pride, but last year he says there were so many people in the park that it "basically broke the cell towers."
Spokane's Pride celebrations draw attendees from across the Inland Northwest, including many folks from Idaho. Drag performances aren't usually allowed at these Gem State Pride events, Danielson explains, so it's something he emphasizes each year. Last year, more than 80 drag artists performed on stages throughout Riverfront Park.
"The weekend we do Spokane Pride there's more love in downtown than there is in the whole year," Danielson says. "I know it sounds 'woo woo' and cheesy, but I have talked to so many people about that, and it is true for them."
This year, the June 14 Pride event coincides with Indivisible's nationwide No Kings protest, which is being held "in response to increasing authoritarian excesses and corruption from Trump and his allies." From 3 to 4 pm at the Lilac Bowl stage in Riverfront Park, Pride organizers are hosting the Stonewall Rally, named after the Stonewall Riots that started the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement in June 1969, for speakers from across the region to speak about the impacts of this presidency.
"It lets us honor our activist roots," Danielson says. "We want every part of the community honored and basically our overarching message is going to be that we need to be a unified coalition to stand up to what's happening in our federal government."
"[The Trump administration] wants us to hide so we'll be quiet and they might get left alone. That's literally what it boils down to," Spokane Pride Vice President Kassandra Forsman says. "And it's like, no, we're not going to be f—ing quiet. We're not going anywhere." ♦
