Walla Walla Pride Safety Plan
It’s that time of year again: Pride, when we joyfully celebrate the dignity, equality, and visibility of our LGBTQIA2S+ and Allied community. Your Walla Walla Pride 2025 planners have engaged the larger Walla Walla community to plan a safe and joyful Pride celebration. We have been working with local civic organizations, businesses, city officials, law enforcement, volunteers, entertainers, and other leaders in planning this event.
Know that the City of Walla Walla, the Parks and Recreation Department, the Streets Department, the Downtown Walla Walla Foundation, and Visit Walla Walla have supported our community with a Pride Month Proclamation, by flying our rainbow banners from downtown street light poles, allowing our rental of Heritage Square Park, providing the Main Street road closure for booth space, and by assisting in the planning and promotion of this event. Our valley’s larger civic and business community is supporting our Pride celebration with significant financial, in-kind, and other donations of time, talent, and infrastructure. The Walla Walla Police Department has allowed us to contract with two off-duty police officers to be present at the Main Street road closures. We have thoughtfully planned all aspects of the Pride festival experience, including safety. To that end, we present this plan.
Our Safety Plan
- Proactive Training. Members of the Pride Planning Committee and our on-site volunteers will be trained in peacekeeping de-escalations skills by two local Safety Marshalls with decades of safety and de-escalation experience. They are the same individuals who have been leading the Safety Marshall training and crews in our valley for many years. Their experience came from both working in professional mental health and medical facilities and in personal community organizing both here and previously in larger communities.
- Day-of Volunteer Crew. In addition to our Pride Planning Committee, we will have a number of volunteers on-site at Heritage Square Park on Saturday, June 7. They will be identifiable by their Walla Walla Pride Volunteer T-shirts. In addition, our Safety Volunteers will be wearing yellow safety vests.
- Pride Community Agreements. Love is a verb. We keep each other safe when we remember this and keep community agreements close to our hearts whenever we come together as the diverse people we are to affirm the principles of democracy, freedom, and equality. The first step towards this goal is accepting some basic agreements about public gatherings. Our community agreements can be found at the bottom of this page.
- See Something, Say Something. In the event of an incident that requires the immediate attention of law enforcement or paramedics, please call 911. The City of Walla Walla will be on-site and ready to help. In addition, we will have a designated Security Lead and De-escalation Team Leads on the Pride volunteer team. We will also have a designated safety station at the Info Tent. If you see something suspicious, please immediately report to a volunteer, the safety station, the safety or de-escalation team leads, or the police. We have contracted to have two off-duty, yet uniformed, Walla Walla Police officers onsite during the Pride festival. One each will be at the Main Street road closures at the intersections of Colville Street and Spokane Street.
Walla Walla Pride Community Agreements
- Be Respectful. Affirm the dignity of your fellow community members and allies through kindness and respect. Pride Festivals should feel safe and diverse. All attendees can play a part in modeling a culture where everyone’s Pride experience is valued and no one is made to feel uncomfortable. We can do this by looking out for each other and being aware of how our own behavior can, sometimes unintentionally, make others feel. Please make sure you have consent before engaging in physical contact with others. If you see someone being objectified, harassed, or looking uncomfortable with another’s behavior, ask if they are okay or notify a Pride volunteer for help.
- See Something, Say Something. Power and safety come from the strength of our relationships and our commitment to our community. Please report any concerns, no matter how big or small, to our safety station or volunteers on site. Should you see any threats to the Walla Walla Pride Festival or the local LGBTQIA2S+ community on social media or elsewhere before, during, or after this event, please forward them to [email protected].
- Zero Engagement with Agitators. In the event of a protest or other agitator activity, follow the mindset of a peacekeeper. Do not engage in dialogue or debate. Debating only serves to reinforce their belief they have a valid position. Our rights, freedom, dignity, our lives, are not debatable. Focus your energy on the community celebration rather than those attempting to distract from the purpose of our event. They want attention. Don’t give it to them. Learn to internalize a total indifference to their presumed positions of authority. Live a proactive life, not a reactive one.
- Photo and Video Policy. Please do not share photographs or videos of non-entertainer attendees, vendors, volunteers, or others without their permission. We ask event volunteers, vendors, and attendees to be mindful of sharing and tagging content that is consensual among those captured in photos or video. Please be sure your content is thoughtful, respectful, and embodies the mind of a peacekeeper. Please do not make assumptions about fellow Pride attendees, their identities, and/or comfort with appearing in photos publicly. Please do your best to ask for consent before posting, sharing, and tagging.
Walla Walla Pride is grateful to the Western States Center and Sandpoint Pride, Sandpoint, Idaho, for their leadership in the area of promoting safe and joyful Pride events. The Western States Center’s “Protecting Pride: An Organizing Guide for Successfully and Safely Celebrating LGBTQIA2S+ Joy in These Times” and Sandpoint Pride’s “Safety at Sandpoint Pride” documents were invaluable in creating this plan. Thank you kindly! Thank you to everyone in the Walla Walla community for coming together to both plan and enjoy this event. Happy Pride!