Issue 27, Volume 43, July 3, 2015
PRIDE
2015 SEATTLE PRIDE 2015 SEATTLE PRIDE 2015 SEATTLE P
RIDE 2015 SEA
SEATTLE PRIDE
Seattle Gay News
TTLE PRIDE 2015 SEATTLE PRIDE 2015 SEATTLE PRIDE 2O15
Pride across America and the world: Significant monuments and buildings light up rainbow for Pride
White House
by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor The rainbow. It’s ours. Every year during Pride celebrations around the world rainbow colored flags fly on flag poles outside of businesses, tied to parade floats going down the street during the annual Pride Parade, and made into stickers, rings, necklaces, bracelets, magnets – you name it! In Seattle, an annual tradition began a few years ago when the rainbow Pride flag was raised at City Hall. This past weekend the Pride flag flew high above the city atop the Space Needle. It wasn’t too long ago when the community was asking for that to happen; now the Space Needle does that all on its own. One year, Seattle Gay News announced our “A Flag on Every Corner” campaign to put as many rainbow flags as humanly possible around the city of Seattle. The outcome was glorious as the city seemed to turn rainbow colored. Of course, this year we got not one, not two, but eleven
Cleveland
rainbow colored crosswalks painted on Capitol Hill. It just doesn’t get any better than that. Or so I thought. After the Supreme Court ruled in favor of LGBTQ marriage equality there was a kind of liberation that took place across the country. People in government, business owners, and more who were straight but in complete support of marriage equality were freed from their closet as supporters of same-sex marriage. This changed everything. In fact, I’m not so sure we know
City, and Chicago. The very top of New York’s World Trade Center was highlighted with rainbow colors on Friday night. Also in New York City, the Empire State Building lit up the night sky rainbow. C l e v e l a n d ’s theater district welcomed the Supreme Court decision by adding some color to its sign before the curtain rose Friday evening. Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff in the one of the cases the Supreme Court ruled on, is from Ohio, and the ruling over-
San Francisco City Hall turned ex a c t ly his state’s ban on same-sex marriage. how much yet. Only time will tell. Same-sex marriage was also illegal in Over the weekend more than 15 national monuments or historical iconic build- Florida until Friday, and the folks at Disings were lit up by ney World joined rainbow colored in on the rainbow lights in a display light display. The of approval for the Cinderella Castle SCOTUS decision. became even more Here in Seattle, magical when enwe celebrated the hanced with pride national move for colors. M i n ne ap ol i s equality by lighting up the giant lit up 1,200 feet of Ferris wheel on El- its I-35W bridge, which crosses the liott Bay. San Francisco Mississippi River. Niagara Falls, lit up its City Hall, along with Los An- which forms part geles, New York of the border be-
Niagara Falls
tween the U.S. and Canada, sent a colorful reminder that same-sex marriage has been legal in Canada for a decade and we are happy that it finally is the law of this land, too. Perhaps the biggest moment for many of us during the whirlwind Pride and Pridefest weekend came when, on Friday, after the announcement that the Supremes’ had ruled in favor of marriage equality for all Americans, the White House turned rainbow by nightfall. And Americans weren’t the only ones celebrating the SCOTUS decision. Nations around the world also showed their solidarity for marriage equality and LGBTQ Pride by lighting buildings and monuments rainbow colored, too. Berlin Germany’s Brandenburg Gate, Tel Aviv, Israel’s City Hall, the Capitol Building in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Auckland War Memorial Museum, Auckland, New Zealand and more participated.
World Trade Center