Snohomish residents turn out to City Council meeting to speak on city’s Pride parade

Published 6:30 pm Wednesday, April 8, 2026

SNOHOMISH — On Tuesday, the Snohomish City Council meeting room was full of people waiting to speak about the city’s Pride parade after a text poll sent from an anonymous service was sent to residents on March 20, suggesting the parade’s “vetoing.”

“Quick Poll: Do you support vetoing the Snohomish Gay/Trans Pride Parade on First Street this year? Reply Y or N,” the text said.

In response, dozens of emails were sent to City Council members and Mayor Aaron Hoffman. The 44th Legislative District Democrats released a statement condemning the text poll and urged members of the public to speak at the Council meeting Tuesday.

The Snohomish Pride Parade is scheduled for 10-11:30 a.m. June 6 and organized by nonprofit Out in Snohomish. The City Council is scheduled to vote on the event’s contract during its regular meeting on April 21.

The public comment portion of Tuesday’s meeting lasted over an hour as people talked both for and against the parade.

“This is the first Snohomish City Council meeting I have attended, but I felt it’s important for me to tell you what I feel,” Snohomish resident Lori Thompson said during the meeting. “My 92-year-old dad is gay, and so is our 32-year-old son. When my dad was growing up, pride didn’t exist. Being gay could get you beat up, shunned or killed. So he did his best to hide who he was.”

The Pride parade is a chance to show that her father and son are “perfect, just the way they are,” she said.

“I just want to be able to walk from my house, celebrate this wonderful, vibrant community, in a way that only small towns can celebrate,” Thompson said.

Mahllie Beck also spoke during public comment. She grew up in Snohomish, went to Snohomish High School and helped organize the first Snohomish Pride parade in 2023.

“We deserve to have Pride in Snohomish. I’m part of the LGBTQ community, and it made me feel accepted and welcomed in my own hometown,” she said. “If you care about people, you will support this because it helps people feel accepted for who they are, especially young adults.”

Two members of the public spoke against the parade during public comment. Snohomish resident Erika Minnehan said that the parade is not an event that would bring the community together.

“Business owners popularizing, promoting and glamorizing immorality divides our community, and it confuses our children, who are already being groomed to question their sexual orientation and their gender identity as early as elementary school,” she said. “We are presently living in an upside-down world, where right is wrong and wrong is right, where moral is immoral and immoral is moral.”

Snohomish resident Scott Hopper agreed.

“Snohomish is a charming family-centered historical town, and Pride parade on First Street turns the public downtown into a platform for adult-themed activism, explicit messaging and gender ideology that many residents, especially parents, don’t want imposed on their community,” he said.

Many speakers rebutted what those against had to say, including unincorporated Snohomish County resident Jeremy Evans.

“We are not an ideology. I can tell you that from the age of five years old,” he said. “That five-year-old was not taught anything about being gay.”

Evans is a parade sponsor, he said.

“It is very family friendly. I don’t go to Seattle Pride, as much as I love and support the people in Seattle, because it’s too crazy. This is appropriate, and that’s what I love about it, because it is toned down,” Evans said.

At the end of the meeting, Council member David Flynn expressed his support for the Pride parade.

“I was very happy to see the community come out in support of the Pride parade,” he said in a Wednesday interview. “I was thankful to see there was minimal to no opposition.”

Taylor Scott Richmond: 425-339-3046; taylor.richmond@heraldnet.com; X: @BTayOkay