With less than 60 days to go until Pittsburgh Pride, the pressure is on to raise crucial funds for the annual event. “It’s a place for everybody to come together, gather, and be with one another without judgment, without worrying about being ‘othered,’” Lyndsey Sickler told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 Reporter Jordan Cioppa. Organizers said this year will be no different when the Pittsburgh Pride festival and parade return to the streets of the Steel City June 6-7. However, the celebrations will come at a cost. “Just for stages is over $100,000. That’s not including lighting, electric, insurance, security,” said Sickler, who serves on the board for Pittsburgh Pride. “Pride is happening one way or another, but to do it the way we’ve been doing it, we need to make sure that we can pay the insurance, that we can pay the electric, we can pay for the stages, and the artists, and all that stuff, because we pay our artists.”This year’s fundraising goal is $500,000. So far, organizers said they have raised about $150,000 of that. “There have been increased amounts of attacks on the LGBTQ community, and we’re seeing that reflected in Pittsburgh Pride this year and Prides all across the country, with corporate sponsors backing out, trying to diminish the amount of support that they’re giving to pride,” said board member Sam Wasserman. Board members said big names like Sheetz and U.S. Steel supported this year’s event, but past sponsors like Tito’s Handmade Vodka and Walmart have not stepped up. A Walmart spokesperson responded with the following statement:”Our focus remains on creating an environment where our associates and customers feel they belong. We’re supportive of associates who want to support Pride month by volunteering in their communities.”A Tito’s spokesperson told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 that the company donates to more than 10,000 nonprofit events yearly. “Unfortunately, we are not always able to continue sponsoring the same events in perpetuity, as we try to spread love to as many organizations as possible,” the spokesperson added. Wasserman said they are currently on track to meet half of the fundraising goal if people continue to show support. “If we were at $250,000 as opposed to [$500,000,] we would have to have discussions about, do we only have one performance stage instead of two?” Wasserman said. “Do we have to shrink our footprint on the park in order to be able to accommodate less costs, less bathrooms, less electricity? Things like that. Less security.” While Wasserman said $150,000 isn’t quite enough, he added that it’s a good start. “On the flip side, we’ve seen a lot of Pittsburghers really embrace Mr. Rogers, being a good neighbor, stepping up,” Wasserman said. “We’ve had hundreds of our local small businesses sign up to be vendors already and pay their vendor fees.”Pittsburgh Pride is recruiting vendors, sponsors, donors, and parade participants. Organizers said they are looking to secure state grant money, too.

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