Mariners Join Seattle Pride Parade For First Time

Members of the Seattle Mariners franchise – including the moose! – will march in the Pride Parade for the first time on Sunday.

About 30 staffers will march, although no players will as they'll be on the road in Los Angeles.

The Storm (women's basketball) and Reign (women's soccer) are active participants. And the bands for the Seahawks and Sounders will march. But the Mariners will be the first pro-sports organization -- with male team members -- to join in.

Rebecca Hale, the Mariners' director of public information, said this is the first time the Mariners are getting involved, mostly because schedule conflicts prevented participation before. It's not feasible for staff to break away from work when the Mariners are playing a home game, she said.

The Mariners have, however, flown a rainbow Pride flag during parade time for the last two years. Hale said Marc Ackerman, who works in the Mariners ticket office, asked if they could fly the Pride flag. “We said absolutely,” Hale said.

That made the Mariners the first major league baseball team to raise the Pride flag in the U.S., according to Eric Bennett, president of Seattle Pride.

As for why they’re joining the parade this year: “It seemed like a fun thing to do,” Hale said.

“A few of us got a look at the schedule this year and thought we’d like to organize a group in the parade,” she said. “Scheduling worked out.”

This year's parade, the 41st, runs down Fourth Avenue, starting at 11 a.m. at Union Street. It ends at Denny Way.

Photo: Seattle Pride Parade 2014, by Rob Wynne (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Correction 6/23/2015: An earlier version of this story misstated when PrideFest takes place. It is scheduled for Sunday.