Breaking News: Space Needle clarifies that the Pride Flag WILL fly for Pride Weekend!

The Seattle Space Needle clarified their position Wednesday afternoon about their challenge to raise $50,000 for four local charities with the “prize” being the flying of the Pride Flag on the Needle for Pride Weekend. On their Facebook page the management of the Space Needle issued the following statement:

We are thrilled to report that since Monday we have raised more than $13,000 towards our goal of $50,000 for LGBT charities.

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!

Well, bravo to the Space Needle to listening to the will of the community. I will agree with some of their detractors that they didn’t originally handle this very well, but I’ll continue to state that I don’t think we should PRESUME the flag will always be flown, or get angry because it’s not….it’s not a guaranteed right, or a discriminatory act, or a slap in our face. And, as for the people that continue to bitch and moan about the Flag/Needle Controversy, you need to move on and be happy that the Pride Flag WILL fly for Pride Weekend, and four great organizations will receive much needed funds. It’s a win/win situation for everyone.