Eugene Pride community to city: ‘Do better’

The City Council hears public comment July 22, noting that Eugene has already lost its hospital, Emeralds baseball, could lose Juneteenth and the Black Cultural Festival, and now even the Pride event is in jeopardy.

Liz LaVenture: Hello everyone. My name is Liz LaVenture. I use she/her pronouns. I’m a 73-year-old transgender woman and I’ve seen a lot in my lifetime. I’ve been involved in planning Pride events for 15 years. I’ve done so in St. Louis, Missouri, San Francisco, and now Eugene. I have never seen the lack of transparency and good-faith communication from our city partners that we have experienced this year.

[00:00:41] We have held Eugene Pride in Alton Baker Park for 15 years now on the second Saturday of August. The city of Eugene knows this. We begin planning Pride each January and coordinate with the city. Eugene proclaims continuing support for the LGBT community. But! But the same date (Aug. 10) as Pride, Eugene allowed Kesey Entertainment to book a sold-out concert at Cuthbert Amphitheater and allow them to reserve all the parking in the public park and to limit access to the park all day until the concert which begins an hour after Pride is over anyway.

[00:01:29] Communication with the city has been confusing and shows a lack of good faith with our board. Time and talent has been invested by dozens of us volunteers in planning Pride these last seven months.

[00:01:43] My heart is in the effort to plan our festival. Our Pride will be on display. As a transgender woman, I feel thrown under the bus and trust trans folks know what it feels like to be thrown under the bus. Please, please city of Eugene, treat us with respect and make us proud to live in Eugene.

[00:02:08] Megan Tucker: Hello and thank you. My name is Megan. I use she/they pronouns. I’m also on the board of Eugene Folklore Society who will be performing at Pride. I’m also the event programmer at Eugene Pride, so I’m an active participant in this community.

[00:02:23] For 30 years, Eugene Pride has been an annual tradition for area lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other LGBTQ community, and it has been the only consistent cultural tradition of the queer, trans, and gender-diverse community. We’re all-volunteer-led in a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

[00:02:45] Kendra Rivera: My name is Kendra Rivera. I use she or they pronouns, and I teach. I’m a full-time faculty member at Lane Community College. As a faculty member and a mother, I can tell you that Eugene Pride creates a community for our students. Pride is not just a party or festival, it is a life-saving event for many.

[00:03:07] We have a sober circle, for example, where queers and trans folks in recovery can still be in community while maintaining their sobriety and building a network of support year-round.

[00:03:17] We offer an interfaith area where faith organizations can work to undo centuries of trauma inflicted on our communities.

[00:03:24] People will meet their first partner at Pride. Some will openly be queer for the first time—I’ve seen my students do this. Others will see friends they haven’t seen in years, and some will see that they are not alone, and it’s worth it to keep going, that a community cares about them, people find themselves.

[00:03:45] Brittany Chapman: Hi, my name is Brittany Chapman and I use the she/her pronouns…

We have a large clothing swap and offer free, gender-diverse haircuts so people can feel comfortable in their own skin.

[00:03:57] And that’s not even getting into the 153 drag queens, musicians, comedians, dancers, poets, and other artists who express themselves on our stages to a crowd of over 12,000 people.

[00:04:11] We have close to 300 sponsors and vendors with booths at this event. Many are businesses owned by queer youth and emerging entrepreneurs who are opening small businesses and making their start.

[00:04:23] No other venue in Eugene offers this opportunity. More than 100 people will be tested for HIV and get immediately connected to care and a supportive environment.

[00:04:32] More than 100 nonprofits will raise awareness around their services and connect the LGBTQ+ community to jobs, resources, and support that they need.

[00:04:43] Whitney Donielson: Hello, my name is Whitney. I use ‘she’ and ‘they’ pronouns and I was born and raised in Eugene. I’m a lifelong resident and as you will hear from other people and have heard, you know, Pride is a really important event for the local queer community. As a member of that community over the years, I found it as a really important place for me to learn about my identity.

[00:05:02] And as you heard, there’s lots of lifesaving events there, like the sober circle, there’s health care. Last year when I volunteered at Pride, I volunteered at the Veteran Village, which is a big tent that has resources for veterans everywhere from the state down to the county level.

[00:05:18] And I saw many and talked to personally many veterans who were queer or otherwise who had never access their benefits before, and they got to access them because they were at Pride. I think part of that is just, you know, veteran services can be wild, but also because they had been historically excluded from the military through ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ and other resources, they never felt comfortable accessing them.

[00:05:40] So it’s a really important event. And I’m frustrated that this parking situation has been going on for so long. I’m frustrated that a private company is getting to take over parking in such a big way. I know the Kesey family is powerful in Eugene. I grew up here, but I would love to see parking be better at these events and especially at ones that are important like Pride.

[00:06:01] Mayor Vinis, you gave an important proclamation about Pride, but words are nothing without actions. And similarly, you mentioned the Black church in Eugene, and I just got an email the other day from the Black Cultural Initiative saying that they are postponing the 75th annual Ferry Street Bridge commemoration celebration because in their words, there was ‘lack of clarity and process and poor communication with the city.’

[00:06:26] Additionally, Pride this year, as others have said, have no clear support from EPD in a contentious election year. Parking is being taken away. There’s many city staff who have been really helpful. I know that even today, this morning, people with the Pride organization met with the city, and they’re doing the best they can.

[00:06:44] But I really would love the leadership of the city, like the Council, to take action and really prioritize these cultural events, especially ones like Pride, so that other city employees can you know, get behind it and make it more of a priority. And I hope you all will continue to do better.

[00:07:00] Brooks McLain: Questions that should have been answered months ago were not answered, because of contracts that have been signed that should be evaluated, like how can a private company take away parking from an event that already struggles with parking, and to learn this only two months before we are organized an event, when we already had a traffic plan, we already had a plan in place, it was ripped away, no clarification was given.

[00:07:20] And this is not happening in isolation. We’re losing Juneteenth celebration. We’ve lost the Black Cultural Festival. This other event that was just referred to has been postponed. We’ve lost our hospital. We’re losing our baseball team, which is one of the biggest fundraisers for the LGBTQ community. And the first to wear rainbows on their jersey, gone, because we don’t support culture.

[00:07:39] You know, we used to have a saying, ’The Greatest City for Arts and Outdoors.’ And we are turning our outdoors into a football palace. We are obliterating our cultural institutions right now. This is an indictment of the political leadership of this city. We prioritize Phil Knight, we prioritize Brian Obie. We do not prioritize the LGBTQ community in our festival. We do not prioritize the Black community in this town. We have a lot of great words, but those words are not translating into action.

I don’t know if you know, but a brick was thrown through the window of the Queer Resource Center. This is a center that’s only been open for a year.

[00:08:10] We have Pride flags being ripped off of people with houses. I understand that BBs were shot at a lesbian couple on Saturday night. This is the reason that this is all coming to the head and the way that this is right now is because of all of these things connected together, not because somebody couldn’t clarify a process in the city.

[00:08:28] And if we have a member of our community leading our city and we still cannot support our community, what does that say about us as a city?

[00:08:36] And you know, we’re really good at putting on a show and you’re doing, we can make traffic work, we can bring the whole world here to run around in a circle, but we can’t offer lifesaving support to our community and our own park, a park that was stolen from this city’s first Black community after it was stolen from the Indigenous people who were here. So we need to do better. Please provide better leadership.

[00:08:58] Bella Jones: Hello. My name is Bella Jones and I use she/her pronouns. Of great frustration is the private control of the park where the Eugene Pride Festival is held the second Saturday of August every year.

[00:09:12] To be told that access to entire fields and paved lots in our park would be withheld from our attendees and taxpaying public has put incredible stress on organizers and our community.

[00:09:24] Our attendees will walk past hundreds of empty parking spots to get to the festival. And that’s for attendees that can walk, not including attendees living with disabilities and requiring access to disabled spots.

[00:09:38] And for what? So that a few thousand people could attend and have a VIP parking lot at a concert an hour after the largest cultural event in Eugene ends to hear a band shout and sing where HIV and AIDS are only lyrics? It’s alarming to see this happening in Eugene and insulting to all of Eugene’s LGBTQ+ community.

[00:10:02] Michelle Cochran: My name is Michelle Cochran, I use the pronouns she/her. The challenges facing Eugene Pride are not happening in isolation.

[00:10:11] Eugene has lost its two largest Black cultural events, Eugene Juneteenth Celebration and the Black Cultural Festival, proving that racism in Oregon is still more potent than homo/trans/queerphobia.

[00:10:26] Simultaneously, the strain on Eugene Pride is incredible. Members of our community are having Pride flags ripped from their homes and their houses egged and our own cutting of the original Pride flag was stolen just last year.

[00:10:41] Bricks have been thrown through the windows of the Queer Resource Center. Other issues in the city include losing our baseball team, which organizes the second largest Pride event in Eugene, not to mention the loss of the hospital as a result, I understand, of decisions by the city.

[00:11:00] We’re giving away our park so that a football palace can be built by an out-of-town oligarch. Our leaders are allowing Eugene to be hollowed out of its cultural institutions and integral public services.

[00:11:14] Heather Allen: Hello. My name is Heather Allen. Where is our community’s care for Pride in our local LGBTQ+ community? We have tried to be respectful members of our community. We already get out of your way by having our event in August to avoid being in conflict with the U of O commencement, track and field events, Juneteenth and the other events in the area during Pride Month. Today it feels as if we have to struggle to even have this one day. A struggle we are proud to share with each other and with movement heroes, people like Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, and the other transgendered women of color and drag queens.

[00:12:07] Our police department, after more than a year of consistent and passionate pleas, still cannot guarantee the safety of Pride organizers, participants and attendees. Three weeks out from our festival and we have no information from the EPD on how we will approach our event, handle the protesters that attempt to disrupt this gathering.

[00:12:31] We are seeing more support from Roseburg Pride organizers than we are from our own public safety officers who we support with our tax dollars. The city should be embarrassed by this.

[00:12:45] Will bigots from out of town using the guise of religion be allowed to roam rampant through the festival grounds, step on people’s picnics, block visibilities of stage with hateful signs, and shout slurs at us over amplified sound that they don’t have a permit to use?

[00:13:04] Will Pride staff be required to keep public safety while officers stand ready to arrest Pridegoers should the slightest movement go awry?

[00:13:16] This was our experience last year, which is unfortunately an improvement from EPD showing up in riot shields, helmets, and batons. However, what is Eugene’s responsibility to keep is actual taxpaying citizens safe. We have been told directly that our people are usually the problem.

[00:13:41] Zora Parker: My name is Zora Parker, and I’m a proud technical theater journeyman in the chapter of IATSE 675, here in Eugene. As part of the International Alliance of Stage Technicians and Entertainment Technicians, my union facilitates the coming together and performance of Broadway shows, sporting events, concerts of all kinds, including the (Eugene) Symphony, which is a huge draw, and other sporting events, rock shows, even the BRAVA Breakfast that we have at the Holt Center.

[00:14:16] My union is diverse, as diverse in makeup as it is in work, and many of my union kin are at Pride helping to support and also to be able to celebrate our truth together as a union. Allowing Kesey Enterprises to overtake Alton Baker Park, which is a public space, by the way, for a concert that doesn’t start until an hour after the celebration is finished, sends a message to me and my rainbow kin, a message that we are only necessary to put on your sports, your concerts, your BRAVA breakfasts and business council meetings, and your Broadway shows; that the celebration specifically for rainbows in the dark, such as myself, has no place in Eugene.

[00:15:06] There’s a saying in the union that ‘The union is a space for everyone and has a place for everyone.’ And I urge the Council and other management of the city to think about: Where is our place? There are so many spaces for other groups. Where is the place for the rainbows in the dark?

[00:15:30] Julia Ozab: Hi. My name is Julia Ozab. I stand before you today as both a proud mom of an LGBTQIA child and a fierce ally for any and all marginalized people.

[00:15:40] I also stand before you as a longtime resident of the Eugene-Springfield area who’s struggling to understand how the situation managed to occur in the year of 2024. I moved here in the summer of 1999 from a small rural town in northeastern Indiana.

[00:15:54] I fell in love initially with the gorgeous scenery that Oregon offered, but it was the inclusivity that helped me know I had selected the right place to call home. The creativity of my first Eugene celebration Pride and ironically the Slug Queen is what comes to mind as a glowing example of that inclusivity.

[00:16:12] My hometown was and still is extremely conservative, very white, very closeted, and very unaccepting of anything deemed different. Yet this past June, the LGBTQIA community there hosted their first-ever PRISM fest, filling several downtown streets with rainbows, inclusion, and Pride. It was enormously successful, despite the rainy weather, and more importantly, 100% safe. If that small, non-inclusive town about the size of Veneta can make a Pride event happen successfully and safely, I see no reason why Eugene, a much more liberal and welcoming community, should be making it so difficult for the LGBTQIA community here to celebrate Pride.

[00:16:56] I’ve attended numerous events at Alton Baker Park over the last several years. Parking is never easy and really should be addressed for a better, more permanent solution. But in the meantime, all events held there need to have better security and safety for all. Eugene Pride Organization has been working with the city for 10 months, spending hundreds of volunteer hours to address traffic, access, safety, etc. The question is: Why are we still finding it three weeks out? We have little information from EPD regarding how they will approach our event and handle the protesters that we know are going to come and attempt to disrupt this event, especially in this very contentious election year.

[00:17:36] All I’m asking is that you look at those around you, that you consider the community, and realize that you are serving all of us. And as a proud mama bear, we’re watching. And I hope that you’ll do what’s right.

[00:17:56] Cameron Leyda: Hello, my name is Cameron Leyda and I wish to speak to you today about challenges the city has allowed to affect this year’s Pride Festival. As you’re no doubt aware, the city allowed Kesey Enterprises take all control of traffic and parking in Alton Baker Park the day of the Pride Festival, severely limiting access to the festival for performers, vendors, and festivalgoers.

[00:18:15] Pride, like Juneteenth and the Black Cultural Festival, are opportunities for members of marginalized communities to gather and celebrate our cultures. All these celebrations have been canceled or compromised this year. As you may also know, EPD has not given the festival organizing committee any details as to their plans for police presence at the festival or how police plan to handle protesters at this year’s festival.

[00:18:39] These protesters include folks who believe that people like me should not be drawing breath and right now I don’t get the impression the city cares much about that. Now I imagine the city does care about money.

[00:18:50] Eugene Pride attracts people from throughout the state, people who come and spend money at local businesses. As Eugene Pride is in August rather than in June, we get an undiluted stream of revelers resulting in even more money for our city.

[00:19:05] Eugene Pride helps establish Eugene’s status as the most gay-friendly town in this part of the state, leading to increased tourism all year long. But mess with that stats and guess what? That revenue goes to Portland.

[00:19:17] In 2019, the County Board of Tourism described Eugene as having urban sophistication and I’d like to say all that art and culture does not happen without queer people.

[00:19:27] I imagine you’ve noticed that Eugene is growing. In order to grow we need to be able to attract skilled workers, particularly health care providers, of which I am one. Many folks in this room and likely several of y’all are on a lengthy waitlist to be seen by primary care psychiatrists, a lot of other specialties. It’s already a hard sell for providers due to our high cost of living and housing shortage. I can assure you that the city, in disregard for its queer community, will not help matters. Trust me, word gets around.

[00:19:52] In my hometown of Atlanta, I had the pleasure of being represented in Congress by civil rights leader John Lewis. In 2019, Congressman Lewis wrote, ‘Every generation leaves behind a legacy. What that legacy will be is determined by the people of that generation. What legacy do you want to leave behind?’ Council members, I invite you to consider that question. Will your legacy be ‘Eugene, where all are welcome’ and they spend their money here—or will it be one of hate, provincialism, and decay?

[00:20:19] Jan Jamieson: My name is Jan Jamieson. I use she/her pronouns, and for the past three years, I’ve attended and volunteered for Eugene Pride. It is a welcoming, inclusive, and celebratory space. I am a member of the queer community and also have many friends and family that are part of this community, including my daughter.

[00:20:41] It’s incredibly important to me that she have a space to feel welcomed, celebrated, and safe. I think at a minimum, everyone wants that for their children and loved ones. I asked that EPD respond to our inquiries related to creating a safe space during Eugene Pride. I don’t want this event to become about fear, but rather about the values that we share in supporting each other in our community. Please help us to meet that vision.

[00:21:14] Please think of your own loved ones. You would want that for all of them.

[00:21:21] Robert Knodel: Hello, City Council. My name is Robert Knodel. I use he/him pronouns and I’m also here (as many of you have heard from many others here) about the issues concerning Eugene Pride.

[00:21:32] I moved up here in 2012 from Southern Oregon where, as I’m sure you could guess, is much more conservative down there and not as welcoming for the queer community in the slightest. I’ve heard of people getting attacked and it is disheartening to hear recently that those kinds of attacks are happening again and more so with bricks being thrown through windows, people’s flags being stolen, and the fact that we can’t even get secure or guaranteed security for our event in a park that we’ve had it consistently for at least 15 years.

[00:22:09] I was very happy when I moved up here to learn how much more progressive it was because of where I came from and what I had seen around me in Southern Oregon versus up here, where it appeared to be a much more of an inclusive artistic community that queer people could thrive in, in a manner of speaking.

[00:22:31] And it’s frustrating with the fact that a private company or what have you is taking control of the park and making it difficult for performers or sponsors or anyone else that would like to attend Pride to not go or to back out or what have you, because of (as many have mentioned) the protesters that come up and make quite a ruckus and make people feel unsafe and break rules, even when there are police there to try and make them enforce them anyway.

[00:23:05] I have firsthand experience from that, trying to keep people away from them, to keep them feeling safe. I put my own self in front of them to make sure that other people can enjoy the event without having to face such bigotry and just outright meanness for no reason.

[00:23:26] They just drive up there, and not even just Eugene Pride but other Prides around Oregon and I really feel like and hope that you all listen and hear all of us and please do better.

[00:23:38] Kae Anthony: Hello, my name is Kae Anthony. I use he/him pronouns. I’m a disabled queer artist and the owner of Majestic Mess Designs. I have been a vendor at Eugene Pride since 2018. I’m also a homeowner who has had a Pride flag stolen off my home.

[00:23:54] To outsiders, Eugene Pride may seem like a fun but frivolous summer party by a queer culture that knows how to have a good time. But Pride festivals are rooted in protests against making our lives illegal.

[00:24:05] It’s a celebration of our victories, but also a time to connect for the work ahead and to provide aid and solace to our community. As of June 28, the ACLU had tracked 527 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in 2024 alone, including three in Oregon. Now more than ever, we need the ability to connect as a physical community, and we need this event to be easy to attend for as many people as possible.

[00:24:32] While the city of Eugene has been working to improve bike routes and public transit, our society is still car-centric and reducing access for cars means reducing access for people. I would like to propose that the city of Eugene assists Eugene Pride in setting up signage directing cars to alternate parking areas well before they try to enter the park, including before they cross Ferry Street Bridge. This will allow drivers to make informed choices ahead of time. We cannot assume everyone attending will check the website first.

[00:25:02] Through online spaces and friend networks, I hear queer people from all over the world wish their Pride festivals were more welcoming to all queer identities, were more focused on the local community culture over corporations. And very often I get to think to myself, ‘Eugene Pride does that.’ My partner from a multi-generational queer family will be traveling hundreds of miles to attend Eugene Pride with me this year, in part because it is a fun and healing event.

[00:25:28] This is an event the city of Eugene should be just as proud of and as supportive of as the major sporting events. I’m glad this Council is declaring they support the queer community in words, but this is an opportunity to back that up with simple actions that will make a big difference to our community and foster goodwill.

[00:25:46] Helen Shepard: Hello, Council. I’m Helen. I use they/them pronouns. I am a lifelong Eugenian. I am the owner of Spectrum Queer Bar, and I’m also on the Eugene Pride Board of Directors. Part of the solution that Eugene Pride has come up with to having our parking taken away from us, this is the parking we’ve been using for years, is that I personally am matching a grant from ODOT to pay for shuttles. And we’re going to have designated parking areas, one of them probably being the stadium. Now first of all the stadium is a lot closer to Cuthbert Amphitheater than it is to where we’re going to be having the festival.

[00:26:29] So why is it that the Cuthbert is not the organization turning to the stadium and using that parking? Why is the onus on the 501(c)(3) organization to get a donor to pay money to have this shuttle service?

[00:26:46] And furthermore, the Eugene Pride is a 501(c)(3) organization. We make grants to individuals, including purchasing books for students, including supporting artists. So this donation, my donation to Eugene Pride this year, it’s going to go to a shuttle, which is at this point a necessary service, but doesn’t have to be. That money could be going straight to the hands of our community members.

Why isn’t Kesey Enterprises, who’s going to be making so much more money that day, why aren’t they the ones paying for a shuttle? I’m tired of picking up the slack. As like an individual, I’m tired of seeing nonprofit resources stretched thinner and thinner because there’s just this attitude of like, ‘Oh, well, they’re a nonprofit. They’re happy to go out of their way to work even harder to do the good thing.’ It’s messed up. And I love the Cuthbert Amphitheater, you know? And I’ve even, I’ve parked in the stadium parking lot to the Cuthbert Amphitheater before. It’s possible, but they are not willing to even entertain that idea, they’d rather take away our parking. That sucks.

[00:28:06] Rev. Brenda Wills: My name is Rev. Brenda Wills. I’m retired United Methodist clergy, and I moved here and bought a home three years ago in Riversong Cohousing.

[00:28:15] Twenty-eight new households came at that time, many of them. It’s a diverse community, but there are several proud and out queer people in our community. In the 2023 Pride Festival, I walked as one of the de-escalators for a bit at the event through 12,000 participants. We urged Pride participants to simply ignore the hateful, often religious language that was being shouted to them, and it was quite difficult to continue their conversations when you’re having someone yell obscenities at you or tell you you don’t belong or that you’re going to hell if you don’t change who you love.

[00:28:57] The mission of Pride is: Promoting Respect In Diverse Expression (PRIDE). In arts and culture, in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities, the disruptors are entitled to their free speech right. But the participants at the Pride Festival have a right to a sense of safety as they gather in a public park.

[00:29:23] It’s important that the Eugene Police Department be present supporting the Pride volunteers as they were last year. They were not in riot gear but were available to intervene if the disruptors threatened the Pride folks physically.

[00:29:37] So as one who was walking around and trying to be kind of in the middle, I found some great support by seeing the police there and knowing they were there to back us up. For 45 years in United Methodist churches, I served in Lincoln, Douglas, Josephine, and Coos County. Those lesbian, gay, transsexual, transgender, and queer people who live in those communities look at Eugene.

[00:30:05] They come here, they spend money here, they come to school here. This is the safe community and always has been for the last 45 of my years in this state and I don’t like to see that changing.

[00:30:18] John Q: Another showcase festival, Eugene Pride, joins Juneteenth, the Black Cultural Festival, and a ceremony for Ferry Street Village, in reporting uncertainty and delay from the city. After noting that city leadership lost the hospital and the Emeralds, the Eugene Pride community asks the city: ‘Do better.’