Still Unclear If The City Will Permit Another Right Wing Hate Rally In Seattle Gayborhood

After the Seattle Police Department (SPD) brutalized queer neighbors to protect a bunch of bigoted out-of-towners who hosted a right-wing hate rally in Cal Anderson Park in May, community members, elected officials, even Seattle Parks and Recreation seemed keen to make sure the City did not permit anti-queer demonstrations for the gayborhood or its most iconic park in the future. But members of Seattle’s queer community aren’t holding their breath for the City to protect them. Singer and provocateur Sean Feucht is still advertising his Aug. 30 Revive in ‘25 Christofascist rally for Cal Anderson and the City won’t reveal the permit sooner than two weeks before the event. 

On May 24, a right-wing group called May Day USA set up a freaky little concert in Cal Anderson, a park named for Washington’s first openly gay state legislator in the heart of Seattle’s historically queer neighborhood, Capitol Hill. The choice of location, suggested by the City, set the stage for a tense afternoon, not to mention a large police presence with the license to whip out their “less lethal” weapons on any rowdy queers they saw fit. SPD did their SPD thing and way overreacted when they allegedly saw objects popping up in the air. They tackled the nearest queers to the ground and carted them off to arrest vans. Throughout the day, the cops continued to randomly escalate, infamously pulling a queer person out of their designated area to dose them in pepper spray. In the end, the Seattle Police Department arrested 23 people with charges of assault and obstruction, including a kid.

Following the dramatic day, almost 2,000 people signed a petition to ask the City not allow Feucht to host his similar right-wing event, slated for Aug. 30 in Cal Anderson. The petition suggested the City permitted the event for Magnuson Park — A former military base seems a much more appropriate venue for the fascists than the CHOP/CHAZ block of the gayborhood.

“As with all groups, Revive in ‘25 and similar groups are entitled to their First Amendment protected free speech. We are not asking for their event to be shut down,” the petition read. “We are asking for the City of Seattle and Parks Department to do what they do for all event requests on public property: evaluate the suitability of an event for the requested space. We believe that the fallout of the May 24th event indicates that deliberately provocative events aimed at the LGBTQIA+ community are not a good fit for Cal Anderson Park”

At the time, the City seemed on board with relocation. 

Elected officials including Mayor Bruce Harrell, Council Member Alexis Mercedes Rinck, and District 3 Council Member Joy Hollingsworth acknowledged that permitting such an event for Cal Anderson was a bad call. Rinck said in a statement posted on Instagram immediately after the event that she would work to prevent this from happening again. Hollingsworth said the City did not “meet the moment” in terms of permitting or crowd management. Harrell, who at first punted the City’s responsibility for permitting the event at Cal Anderson, also threaded the needle between condemning the rally and accepting their right to free speech. 

“While there are broad First Amendment requirements around permitting events under free speech protections, I am directing the Parks Department to review all of the circumstances of this application to understand whether there were legal location alternatives or other adjustments that could have been pursued,” Harrell said in a press release. 

A spokesperson for Seattle Parks and Recreation told Capitol Hill Seattle Blog in May they have not permitted the Revive In ‘25 event for Cal Anderson. They are working with organizers to permit it elsewhere. 

But now, two and a half weeks before the Revive in ‘25 event, its still unclear where the event will take place. Feucht’s team did not respond to requests for comment, but his website still links to an event listing that puts the Aug. 30 rally in Cal Anderson. The Mayor’s Office told The Burner that Park Use Permits aren’t issued for about two weeks prior to an event. So at this time, the spokesperson wrote, a permit has not been issued for Cal Anderson or any other park.

So, Seattle's queer community should know later this week where the City will allow bigots to rally against their existence. That will be a quick turnaround for anyone hoping to organize a counter action.