Libertarians are owed apology by Pride group

I congratulate the Olympia gay community for its recent pride event. I cannot congratulate Ms. Schlecht or Capital City Pride. The Libertarian Party of Washington and I were banned despite having a paid booth weeks in advance.

The LP has always supported equal rights for the gay community. We had a plank in the national platform supporting gay marriage since 2008, four years before the Democrats. The 1972 LP presidential candidate was gay. The LP talks the talk and walks the walk.

I paid for this booth and made it clear that it was for the LP of Washington. The ban pretext was that we planned to “open carry” in our booth. There was no information that open carry was forbidden by Capital City Pride until Ms. Schlecht formed that policy on Friday evening, June 19.

As booth owner, no open carry in the booth was my personal policy for weeks. Ms. Schlecht ignored my personal, face to face assurances of this. The LP and I are a strong supporters of Second Amendment rights. I am also considerate of the feelings of others, especially in light of recent events.

We expended time and resources for this event and deserve compensation for the failure by the CCP to honor their contractual obligations. We also deserve a public apology from Ms. Schlecht for her actions and public statements.

Lacey

This story was originally published July 21, 2015 at 4:35 PM with the headline "Libertarians are owed apology by Pride group."