This year, it was Bring Your Own Pride (with photos)

Susan Troller  —  8/14/2008 10:16 am

Madison's 19th annual gay pride event Sunday was a shadow of its former self with hundreds, not thousands, of participants.

Madison Pride, the organization behind the colorful rally at the Capitol, parade around the Square and picnic in Brittingham Park attributed the drop in numbers to the aftermath of a financial tangle involving the group's former treasurer that began last spring.

Mark Steward, co-chair of the 2008 Pride event and a member of the Madison Pride board, said the group had spent about $200 on this year's event, compared with thousands spent in previous years which had gone for big ticket items like beer tent rental and entertainment.

The annual event, he said, is designed to provide fellowship among Madison lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered population and their supporters, and to make the rest of the community aware of their presence.

The event began as a rally at 11 a.m. on the Capitol steps that included remarks by Rep. Tammy Baldwin, who was cheered when she encouraged the crowd to ignore "naysayers, the cynics and the keepers of the status quo" in their pursuit of social justice.

Baldwin, the first woman from Wisconsin to serve in the House of Representatives, was also the first non-incumbent, openly gay person to be elected to Congress.

After the rally, a group of about 300 or 400 chanted and marched around the Square. They were accompanied by a phalanx of women on motorcycles, known as the Dykes on Bikes. A number of marchers then made their way to the park for a picnic.

Steward's fellow board member and co-chair of the Pride event, Dawnne Edseth, said the group had not been able to afford advertising for this year's event, with remaining debt from last year at about $7,500.

The Capital Times reported on the group's financial troubles, which began emerging in March, last spring. The group's former treasurer, identified on the group's MySpace page in April, was Scott Toomey. He was removed from the board shortly after the problems were discovered.

Steward said the group had hired an attorney and the investigation regarding the group's debts and its financial situation were continuing.

In an interview Sunday Steward said "If we find enough evidence we'd definitely press charges." But he added that currently there is not a paper trail that would warrant legal action.

Toomey has not been charged. His phone number has been disconnected and he could not be reached for comment.

In addition to the financial troubles, Edseth also attributed diminished attendance to the lack of a particular issue or legislative initiative of interest to the LGBT community this year.

This year, instead of a beer tent and vendors with food for sale, participants brought their own coolers and grills, and set up picnic blankets on the lawn at the park.

"We told everyone this was a BYOP event — Bring Your Own Pride," Edseth said. "The people who are here are great supporters of the cause, the ones who are still with us in the heat, the dark of night, the middle of financial discrepancies," she said with a shrug and a grin. "Maybe there's something to be said for an event that's a little less scripted and elaborate. Maybe in the future we want to find something that is a happy medium ."

Entertainment this year, she added, was also going to be more spontaneous than in previous years.

A young woman who learned about the event on Craigslist and identified herself only as Angela said she was trying to work up the courage to do a lip sync impersonation of Freddy Mercury.

"I'm a really big fan of Queen," she said.

Steward and Edseth said the Pride group is likely to disband and a new group will be created to begin to plan next year's 20th anniversary celebration. The new group, they said, would take on the current group's debts.

Susan Troller  —  8/14/2008 10:16 am