Eugene Pride cancels rally and march, accusing EPD of double standard

Eugene Pride has canceled its annual rally and march, with organizers citing as reasons the Eugene Police Department’s lack of support in the face of disruptions from evangelical protesters, the potential for volunteers to be arrested over “disorderly conduct,” and a general air of distrust toward police.  

The cancellation was announced late Sunday, June 21, in an extended statement. The rally and march, planned for next Saturday, would have stretched from downtown’s Kesey Square to the Lane Events Center. The festival at Lane Events Center will go on as planned.

The committee organizing the rally and march was “emphatic” that it would not participate if the parent organization, Eugene Pride, filed a formal permit application with the police, said Brooks McLain, marketing coordinator and previous board president of Eugene Pride. The Eugene Pride board stood by that decision, and proceeded to cancel the rally late Sunday night. 

The cancellation comes as relationships between police agencies and some queer communities across the country have been strained for decades, resulting in the rise of the “No Cops at Pride” movement. 

In Eugene, that friction has intensified since January. Many of the members of the committee organizing the rally and march are also queer community members who were active in protests around the Eugene Federal Building.

They point to what they see as a double standard, saying legal consequences for those protesting federal immigration enforcement using amplified noise have been harsher than the generally hands-off approach applied to evangelical protesters at Pride or at the Eugene Saturday Market. 

“We’ve been told that they have the First Amendment right to be there, a bunch of different case law and other things,” McLain said. “To then be turned around and say, ‘Well, you can’t use amplified sound when you’re protesting,’ was a bit too far for us to be able to justify or to make sense of in our heads.”

How Eugene Pride canceled its kickoff rally 

Whether Eugene Pride would have support in the face of disruptions this year was a key issue for organizers after 2025. Last year’s rally and march was disrupted by a number of evangelical Christian protesters, who shouted anti-LGBTQ+ messages amplified with a portable speaker system at the rally. Police were at the periphery, while a Rainbow Guard of 25 to 30 volunteers formed a physical barrier in an attempt to drown out the evangelical protesters.

Those protesters, the same group that frequently travels from Roseburg to the Eugene Saturday Market, have been a presence for years at Eugene Pride. This year, Eugene Pride organizers sought and received a $4,500 Downtown Program Fund grant from the city of Eugene to pay for fencing and gated entry, in order to control access to the march and rally itself.

The fencing would have been placed on Broadway and Willamette streets at the cross-alleyways between Oak and Olive, as well as between Eighth and 10th avenues, McLain said. The grant funding has been returned to the city.

But Anna Lardner, one of the rally and march organizers for Eugene Pride, said she started to raise the point that it wouldn’t be appropriate to have police at Pride this January. Lardner is also a plaintiff in the “unusual noise” lawsuit concerning protests surrounding the Eugene Federal Building.

She recalled protesting outside the Eugene Federal Building with her megaphone in November or December, as law enforcement officers told her to stop. The contrast between that response, and what she called a lack of a response to evangelicals shouting anti-LGBTQ+ messages, “was one of the most egregious points that was completely irreconcilable this year” ahead of the march, she said.

Her push came even before protesters at the federal building faced tear gas and federal officers while local opposition to immigration enforcement mounted. 

“My recommendation personally had always been that we not work with EPD, regardless of what they were going to do, just because of their track record of working with marginalized people,” she said.

As June approached, the issue of the permit hung over finalizing any formal plans. At a June 15 site walk at the Lane Events Center, McLain said, an Eugene police representative told Pride organizers that if the event proceeded without a permit, any liability would fall on Eugene Pride. The police liaison added that “any of our volunteers that were in the street could be viewed by EPD as engaging in disorderly conduct,” the statement reads.

Lardner contrasted that guidance with how EPD has provided traffic control for other unpermitted marches in Eugene, including the larger No Kings protests and the September vigil memorializing assassinated conservative pundit Charlie Kirk. 

Melinda McLaughlin, a spokesperson for Eugene police, said in a statement to Lookout that the department cares “deeply about the safety of everyone involved and the broader community, and we’re sorry to hear they feel they need to cancel their event.”

Here is EPD’s full response: 

“Eugene Police and other City departments have been in conversations with the group throughout the year and remain committed to ongoing dialog and collaboration. Building on the success of last year’s events, we believed we could again work together to support a successful and safe gathering. We care deeply about the safety of everyone involved and the broader community, and we’re sorry to hear they feel they need to cancel their event.

Certain permits are required so the City can put appropriate safety measures in place and reduce risks for participants and the public. When events move forward without permits, it limits our ability to provide the planning, staffing, and protections that help keep people safe. EPD discussed these concerns with organizers, including applicable laws designed to ensure safety for both the group and the community.

Our goal is always the safest possible outcome. When a large, unpermitted march occurs, essential safety protocols and planning cannot be fully implemented, creating gaps that put participants and the community at risk.”

What happens now

McLain said that, due to the logistics of running an event like Eugene Pride, some level of cooperation with the police is necessary.

“To get insurance, we have to work with the police,” he said. “There’s no other way to do it. Another alternative was to cancel Pride.”

While some might think that cancellation appropriate, McLain said, the value of an annual opportunity for Eugene’s queer community to spend time together is too vital.

“When something like this event were to be canceled or were to be jeopardized, it eliminates a safe place where this might be the only place where a kid can express themselves, but it also gets rid of the ability of us to network and see each other and build the connections that can last us through the whole year,” he said. “To lose that would be huge.”

McLain emphasized that there is no change to the festival itself, which will continue from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Lane Events Center, followed by an after-party until 11 p.m. 

Lardner said she expects a community march and rally of unaffiliated individuals to fill the vacuum the official cancellation has left. McLain said Eugene Pride would be in support of a grassroots march, and would promote details on its social media platforms if one materialized.

Reflecting on the cancellation of the rally and march, Lardner said there’s nothing new about queer people facing threats of repression and arrest from police.

“I think law enforcement has tried to bully, intimidate, and scare queer people out of expressing our collective strength, power, and resilience,” she said. “I think that, despite their threats and despite their actions, we are still going to express that collective liberation, even if they try to stop us from doing so.”