A conservative Christian concert series agreed to hold its Seattle show this month at Gas Works Park rather than Cal Anderson Park, though the group plans to meet there for outreach efforts and a march earlier in the day.
LET US WORSHIP, a Christian activist group, planned to hold its Revive in 2025 concert at Cal Anderson Park on Aug. 30. The news of the event drew outrage from some of the city's LGBTQ+ activists. LET US WORSHIP's founder, Sean Feucht, has previously espoused anti-LGBTQ+ and Christian Nationalist rhetoric.
The park, named after Washington's first openly gay legislator, is in the city's LGBTQ+ hub, Capitol Hill.
Mayor Bruce Harrell and Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth (who represents the Council district that includes Capitol Hill) met with organizers Monday in hopes of finding an alternative site, according to a news release. The group agreed to move their event 5 miles north to Gas Works Park, said the release from Harrell and Hollingsworth's offices.
“After that conversation, the organizers have agreed to move their event to Gas Works Park, Harrell and Hollingsworth said. "We are grateful that they were receptive to our recommendation."
However, organizers seem to be planning to meet at Cal Anderson Park before the event at Gas Works Park, as first reported by Publicola. According to the group's Facebook event, the group will meet at the Capitol Hill park for outreach efforts, then hold a "Jesus March" through the neighborhood before heading to Gas Works Park.
"We will head into America's darkest, most broken cities; cities where people have been ignored by their leaders and where homelessness, crime, drug addiction and poverty are strangling the population," the tour website reads. "With the power of the Holy Spirit, we will bring the Gospel and a heart of praise to those downcast and downtrodden souls."
A spokesperson for Harrell did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening on the group's decision to hold events in Cal Anderson Park despite the agreement.
Feucht's team did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
After hearing about the event, Capitol Hill Pride asked the city to revoke any public use permit for the event.
Callie Craighead, a spokesperson for the mayor's office, said the city has to take a content-neutral stance when it comes to approving event permits.
"We've done a legal analysis of our park use permit process, and that has been the response that came back: The First Amendment protects speech even that we may disagree with or that the community may disagree with, and we can't decline a permit based on that," she said.
The desire to compromise comes after Harrell faced backlash in May after an anti-transgender concert was permitted in Cal Anderson Park. Counterprotests led to 23 arrests. Counterprotesters wanted to know how the Mayday USA rally could occur in Seattle’s most LGBTQ+ friendly neighborhood.
More protests broke out after Harrell denounced The Mayday USA rally, calling it an "extreme right-wing" event.
This time around, the city wanted to try and get before potential clashes between protesters and concertgoers, Craighead said.
"I think the goal is to prevent that community conflict and reaction, recognizing that this group has a right to express their views, and that we can't decline them," Craighead said. "(We) think there is a more suitable location for them that will not interfere or harm the community, that they could still express their message, but not provoke such a reaction from the community.
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