(OPINION) ETH – An LGBT Pride event in Seattle, Taking B(l)ack Pride, is planning to charge white attendees a “$10 to $50 reparations fee” in order to “keep [the] event free of cost for [the] black and brown trans and queer community.”

When two other Pride event organizers — Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson — raised concerns about the “reparations fee” in a letter to the Seattle Human Rights Commission, the group bullied the pair and made clear it has no intention of reversing the charge associated with attendees’ ethnicities.

“It has come to our attention that an event called ‘Take B(l)ack Pride’ at the Jimi Hendrix public park June 26 is charging whites only admission as reparations,” they wrote in a joint letter, asking the city to review the discriminatory policy. “We consider this reverse discrimination in its worse [sic] form and we feel we are being attacked for not supporting due to disparaging and hostile emails.”

LeFevre and Lipson, who banned gay and straight police officers from attending their previous Pride event, went on to write they would “never charge admission over the color of a person’s skin and we resent being attacked for standing in those values.”

On its Facebook page, the Taking B(l)ack Pride organizers described the event as “black and brown queer trans centered, prioritized,” adding that “white allies and accomplices are welcome to attend but will be charged a $10 to $50 reparations fee that will be used to keep this event free of cost for black and brown trans and queer community.” READ MORE