It is both the city's best- and least-known LGBT organization. Chicago's Annual Pride Parade has nearly doubled in recent years, adding hundreds of thousands of spectators to its route.
But for as much spotlight as the parade has drawn, some have commented that the workings of the parade organization remain in shadow.
Last year, criticism surrounding the parade erupted after an unprecedented 850,000 attendees overwhelmed police.
According to Rich Pfeiffer, parade coordinator, he sat down with police, aldermen, neighborhood groups, emergency personnel and people from the mayor's office and started to brainstorm on how make the parade safe again.
But while most commented that Pride 2012 was a success, others questioned who was in charge and why. Windy City Times sat down for an in-depth interview with Pfeiffer who explained who runs the parade and how much money it takes to make it happen.
Windy City Times: So, who is the parade committee?
Rich Pfeiffer: I'm the parade coordinator; my partner, Tim Frye, handles all economic things; and Gene Janowski is our webmaster. So we're the triumvirate that does what we call the legal, the physical structure of the parade. A lot of what I do with the parade is literally following what the city ordinance said.
Windy City Times: What kind of entity organizes the parade? Are you a 501(c)(3)?
Rich Pfeiffer: We're not a 501(c)(3). In the early days of the parade, because the parades were so small, most of them were not 501(c)(3). And then as time went on, like in the '80s, a lot of the groups wanted to do festivals. In order to get sponsors for the festivals in those days, you had to be 501(c)(3). In our case, we didn't have to do that because we weren't doing a festival.
Windy City Times: So how does it get decided who gets to plan the parade?
Rich Pfeiffer: Up until 2001, if you were a parade in the city, on the first day after Jan. 1, you had to get downtown, stand in a line, hope to God you got in the front of the parade and then you would get a time stamp … just in case another group wanted to do a parade in the same location. … The problem with that is that you'd get in certain ethnic communities three or four groups of people that wanted to do that parade. So it put the city in the position of having to make decisions on who gets the permit and who doesn't.
Now, the requirement is that you have to go in in the first two days of the month in order to continue what is called "traditional parade status." That was a term that they coined in 2001. If a parade has been going for five years or more, in a given location, on a given date, you have first dibs on that parade.
Once we do that, then we're required to register everyone in the parade, even when people double up.
Windy City Times: And the politicians?
Rich Pfeiffer: Most of the city parades, you've got the governor and the mayor at the front of the parade. In most city parades, the politicians are marching right at the front. We have never had politicians marching right at the front of the parade. In fact, up until five years ago, if there were 35 politicians in the parade, we would start them at about five and then number them to 40. We started getting feedback from people: "You've got too many of the pols at the front." So what we started doing is we started spreading them back. Last year they were back to about 215. This year they went back to about 89.
We did [things] differently this year, once we decided to give up 50 entries in the parade. (The parade was 250 entries in 2011 and 200 in 2012, cut back in response to safety concerns.) Our initial reaction was "OK, we're giving up 50 entries. We don't want to give up 50 LGBT entries in that parade." So what we did is we sent a letter to all the elected officials and said, "We're going to do what they do in other parades, and it's going to be position 10 in the parade. So, if you want to be in the parade, you can march in position 10. You can have no cars, no vehicles or anything." So about 14 or 15 took us up on that offer.
Windy City Times: What about ones who don't take up that offer?
Rich Pfeiffer: Ones who don't, they were spread along the parade route.
Windy City Times: Do the politicians have to pay for entry?
Rich Pfeiffer: No, no, no, no. That's a separate issue. If you're an elected official in any other the cities parades, you don't pay.
Windy City Times: Is that your decision or the city's?
Rich Pfeiffer: That's up to the parade coordinators. Some of the parades do, but in Chicago I only know of two parades that have started doing that. But traditionally, if elected officials come to parades, and they're marching at the front of the parades, they're not charged.
Windy City Times: So as more politicians have started using the parade for campaigning, have you reconsidered charging?
Rich Pfeiffer: You know, we've thought about that. We've had this discussion with other gay parades across the country. Some have said, "That would be really tacky to do that. These are people that have supported us."
Windy City Times: So do the entry fees for contingents pay for the whole parade?
Rich Pfeiffer: It literally pays for 99.9 percent. We print out 1,000 buttons. We sell them and make $300 off them. We do a pride guide booklet. We break even, usually.
We don't have corporate sponsorships. Someone said to me, "Rich, well American Airlines is in the parade. Aren't they a corporate sponsor by being in the parade?" Technically, not. If you're a corporate sponsor at a street festival, you often get a booth. Sometimes you don't get a booth, but you'll give $5,000 to a street festival and you'll be on their website and on their posters and all that stuff.
Windy City Times: What are the entry fees now?
Rich Pfeiffer: What's happened in the last two years, our budget has literally doubled in two years. About three years ago, there were two accidents in our parade and one other parade. At that annual meeting that year [with the city], with the 35 parade coordinators, they said, "You larger parades, you're probably going to have to barricade your whole parade this year."
So for non-profits we went from [a fee of] $150 to $225. So let me put this in perspective: A lot of the gay pride parades in the country charge much more. We don't want to burden especially the non-profits and charge them a lot of money. We want to be able to just pay the expenses.
So, this year it was $350 non-profit, $700 for business and $1,400 for corporate. And we have maybe about 20 corporate ... but we're real cognizant of who these corporations are that are in the parade.
Windy City Times: Does anyone on the parade organizing team get a salary or stipend or any compensation?
Rich Pfeiffer: No. Nothing like that. After I had to give back refunds last year, I think my seed money last year was about $1,000.
Windy City Times: What is the budget for the parade?
Rich Pfeiffer: It was in the 90s—95 or 98 [thousand].
Windy City Times: Where is the money kept?
Rich Pfeiffer: We just have an account. We don't have a lot of checks that we write. Our major expenses are to the barricade company, the City of Chicago and the portable restrooms. That's most of the money.
With that $8,000 left, I don't have the luxury if people say, "Oh, you should donate to the Center [on Halsted]." It's not a big cushion. If [the city officials] suddenly they tell me next year, "Rich, it's not $35,000 next year; it's $50,000 [for the parade]," I got to have that in the bank to cover that next year.
Windy City Times: There is a pride organization listed as dissolved by the secretary of state. Is that your organization?
Rich Pfeiffer: Well, it was but let me give you the history. Back in the '70s, in that era when the Pride Committee was doing all these events, this guy named Pat formed this non-for-profit. As of the early '80s, there were internal differences among those of us who produced pride. …We decided we were no longer going to do that not-for-profit in the state of Illinois. So we pulled out as of '81. One of the decisions we had to make once that group left town was, "Do we want pull the parade out of there?" Our treasurer at the time said, "Just let it go because it's not us." One of our others said, "Well, maybe down the pipe, we'll want to do a festival."
So, every year until a few years ago, we would just pay the [filing] fee like rote. The parade was not a part of it, but we would just pay to keep it going so that we didn't have to create a new one. About two years ago, we were sitting there, and I don't know if it was … Tim who said, "What are we paying this $10? We haven't been there in 30 years. Just let it expire."
Windy City Times: How is the grand marshal chosen?
Rich Pfeiffer: We kind of look around what's going on nationally. Plus, [there's] this concept that we don't take input from the community; six of our grand marshals for the last 13 or 14 years have all been suggestions from the community. People called me up. People emailed. Often, it's who's available.
This year, we put out feelers toward four different potentials; [author-actress] Jane Lynch was one of them.
Windy City Times: How is the line-up of floats determined?
Rich Pfeiffer: If you register in March when the forms go out, we're going to put you farther up than if you register in June. We've been kind of pulling back from that a little bit. Where the changes come is this year; I had 27 or 28 requests from people who wanted to be in a particular location. If some people are farther up one year, we'll pull them back the next year. If people make requests, we're more than happy to do it.
Windy City Times: You cut back from 250 entries last year to 200. If it comes down to it, do LGBT groups get priority for getting in?
Rich Pfeiffer: Once I fill up my 200-250, and I have to hand in what's called a site plan to the city, I cannot change that. But there's a period often of a week before I have to hand it in to the city, where if I have someone on a waiting list, I can pull them in. I'll take the gays first, but I haven't had to do that because the only time I need to do that is if someone cancels—and no one cancels.
Windy City Times: What happens to the parade when there is no more Rich Pfeiffer? Can this parade exist without you?
Rich Pfeiffer: Oh, sure. What I've always said to people is that a year before I decide to go bye-bye, I'll let people know. I'll let the community know. What I started doing two years ago is, literally, to record in a book what it entails to put on this parade, because I love the parade. I think it's important.
