Godden, others continue effort to fly Pride Flag over Needle | Community Spirit

With four days remaining until the 2011 Seattle Pride Parade, the community is still $30,000 short of its fundraising goal to ensure the Pride Flag will fly over the Space Needle for the second year.

Seattle City Councilmember Jean Godden, who jumped into the Pride Flag controversy early with a supportive blog post and a personal request to the Space Needle, took up a placard with members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence June 22 to raise awareness and funds outside the Needle, which she calls a symbol of the city.

“With  that goes the responsibility to be an inclusive city,” Godden said. “Flying the flag shows that we are an inclusive city.”

She said it felt good be out with the Sisters, hearing the honks from commuters.

“It reminds me of when I was on the newspaper and we went on strike,” she said. “It was wonderful to hear the honks of support.”

Godden said she is glad the Space Needle reconsidered its original decision not to fly the rainbow flag for the second year. She is also happy the Needle is using is influence to raise money for four worthwhile charities.

The Space Needle agreed to fly the Pride Flag following the June 26 Pride Parade if the community is able to raise $50,000 for the It Gets Better Project, Lambda Legal, the Greater Seattle Business Association Scholarship Program and Mary’s Place.

The community has raised nearly $21,000 as of 9 a.m. Jan. 22, with $500 coming from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s efforts at the Needle last week. SubPop Records is the most recent large donor to the effort, contributing $5,000 June 21.

“We hope that our contribution will inspire other local businesses to join us and help these worthwhile organizations,” SubPop Vice President Megan Jasper said in a press release. “We hope that our contribution will inspire other local businesses to join us and help these worthwhile organizations.

Donations are being accepted through the Space Needle’s Facebook page.

A number of sources are reporting the Space Needle will fly the Pride Flag regardless of whether the community meets its fundraising goal or not. These reports are based on a June 15 release from the Space Needle. The release does not seem to confirm those reports, and the Space Needle has not returned calls for clarification, so I will post the release below for your own parsing.

In the meantime, Pride Flag or no Pride Flag, the more money raised for charity, the better.

The Space Needle’s June 15 press release:

Our sincere intention is to reach out to the LGBT community to raise money for these important organizations and to proudly fly the Pride flag on the top of the Space Needle. We are on our way to our fundraising goal and will be just as excited as the community to see the Pride flag raised on the Space Needle. Please join us in this effort to raise $50,000 or more for the GSBA Scholarship Fund, Lambda Legal, It Gets Better, and Mary's Place!

This is not the first time the Space Needle has organized fundraisers for the community. We had a competition between the Huskies and the Cougars in which the school with the most donations was honored with their flag on the Space Needle. We raised more than $160,000 for the Habitat for Humanity during this fundraiser in less than 14 days. We have challenged many charitable organizations to raise money for humanitarian causes such as our Tree for All holiday project to light our tree at the base of the Needle.

This current fundraiser is a way to raise money for people in the LGBT community who especially need it, such as helping LGBT students pay for college, giving LGBT youth the support they need to keep from contemplating suicide, providing homeless women a safe LGBT friendly place, and providing legal representation to LGBT persons and causes. This was a way the Space Needle could not only raise the Pride flag, but give back even more to the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender community.

The Needle has turned down 8 requests this year alone, but it is because of the overwhelming support for this cause that created the opportunity for us to lead the fundraising for these organizations. Again, our sincere intention is to reach out to the LGBT community to help raise money for these important organizations and to proudly fly the Pride flag on the top of the Space Needle. Please join us!