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Redmond council adopts resolution backing LGBTQIA+ protections, allocates $3,000 to Pride festival
Summary
The Redmond City Council unanimously passed a resolution declaring the city welcoming to LGBTQIA+ residents and approved a $3,000 sponsorship to Pride Across the Bridge for the 2025 Redmond Pride event. Public testimony included calls for police accountability and community support for teens after the Old Firehouse teen center closure.
The Redmond City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution affirming the city as welcoming to LGBTQIA+ residents and pledged visible support for transgender and nonbinary community members, then voted 7-0 to spend $3,000 in unspent council contingency to sponsor Pride Across the Bridge’s 2025 Redmond Pride event.
The resolution, which Council Vice President Forsyth introduced as primary sponsor, affirms “the city will proactively show visible support for the community through policy advocacy and investment in inclusive programs and services,” and passed on a roll call vote. Council members then approved a motion to allocate the full $3,000 balance from the prior biennium’s council contingency to the Pride festival.
The vote followed a proclamation for Pride Month and nearly an hour of public comment, including a lengthy account from Erin Hamilton, who told the council she had reported online death threats to the Redmond Police Department and said the department did not forward her complaint to detectives. “The Redmond Police Department is failing the LGBTQ+ and the trans community,” Hamilton said in public comment, adding she feared for her life and that trust in police was “broken.”
Other public speakers urged the council to move from symbolic gestures to concrete action. Jan Young of Kirkland, who identified herself as an advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community, praised the resolution’s protections and urged the city to follow through with programs and services for vulnerable teens. Aspen Richter, a Redmond resident, thanked the council for a related resolution on the consent agenda, calling it more substantive than previous proclamations because it included “specific and timely protections and actions.”
Council members framed the sponsorship vote as consistent with prior contingency spending on community events and services, naming past allocations to Centro Cultural Mexicano and the Saturday market as precedents. Several members said the city’s spending should align with stated values. Council Vice President Forsyth said council leadership had confirmed $3,000 carried over from the 2023–24 biennium and moved that allocation after telling colleagues the timing fit with the month’s Pride events.
The council also discussed creating a clearer process for future contingency allocations. Council Member Stewart moved to postpone the sponsorship to the next regular meeting so all members could review the contingency balance and alternative funding sources; that motion failed 5–2. The allocation then passed 7–0.
City staff present during the item included Michael Love and Laurel Williams, who accepted the proclamation on behalf of the employee Pride committee.
Council members said they will continue follow-up actions on items raised in public comment and through ombuds reports, including the concerns about police response and the separate issue of teen services raised by multiple speakers. Those issues are under separate agenda items or staff review and were not resolved by the sponsorship vote.
