Tonight's 'Pink Party' is Last One on New Year's Eve (WI LGBTs)

Wisconsin State Journal ^ | December 31, 2005 | Doug Erickson

[Diana in Wisconsin]

When Richard Kilmer recalls the first Pink Party in 1995, he sees mainly coats. Mountains of them.

Attendance at the inaugural year of the gay-themed New Year's Eve celebration so outpaced expectations that volunteers in the coat check room quickly ran out of hangers.

"Coats were stacked to the ceiling. It was the Nightmare of the Coats," said Kilmer, who helped plan the event. "I don't know how anyone ever got theirs back."

The Pink Party, an immediate success that went on to attract nearly 1,900 people at its height, will end its run tonight on its 11th anniversary. Organizers say they want to shut it down while it's still hot.

"It was never intended to go on forever," said Nikki Baumblatt of event-sponsor OutReach Inc., Madison's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community center. "When we started it, there were not many options for LGBT people. Now they can go to other parties and not feel ostracized or out of place."

Although the event still draws a significant crowd and clears a small profit, expenses are mounting, while attendance peaked five years ago. OutReach plans to replace the Pink Party with some other type of annual community party every spring, beginning in 2007.

The decision has triggered sadness but also fond memories of an event that came to signify more than just a party.

"We wanted to create an event that would bring something to the community - not just raise money but actually enhance the lives of people," said Sande Janagold, who was director in 1995 of The United, a precursor of OutReach and the first sponsor of the party. "I personally always wanted to go out on New Year's Eve with my partner and be really out about it and dance with her."

For most of its run, the Pink Party was held at the Madison Civic Center, perhaps the most prominent site in the city outside of the state Capitol.

"As someone who's worked for LGBT rights for a long time, it was amazing to see how far we'd come," said Kilmer, who was board president in 1995 of The United. "We went from having a backroom, hidden bar to being right out there in the mainstream. This was the center of town, a big, public space. It was very different from the old days."

The Pink Party filled a void unique to Madison's gay community, said Kilmer, a pharmacist at Community Pharmacy.

"The good thing about Madison is that we are included in everything - the gay community isn't ghettoized like in a lot of cities," he said. "On the other hand, there was no big event to bring us all together."

The event brought out many city leaders and other prominent people.

"You didn't have to be LGBT to come to the party, and a lot of people weren't," said DeEtte Tomlinson, a former director of The United.

Tomlinson said she's unsure whether she'll attend the final party. Part of her wants to be there to celebrate its legacy, but it may be too hard emotionally, she said. "It is so sad, it really is. It truly felt like a community celebration. The money was secondary."

Its first year, the party occupied just one room of the Civic Center. By its third year, the party had spilled over to a second room and to the giant public foyer at the Civic Center, where the main dancing took place. The Civic Center, since replaced by Overture Center, had large glass windows looking out to State Street.

"I just remember standing there thinking, 'How cool is this to have a public space like the Civic Center with all these same-sex couples dancing in full view of everyone on State Street,'" said Paul Hughet, who came up with the idea for the Pink Party and led the event its first four years.

Last year, when the party was held at Overture Center, rental costs for the event more than doubled, from $4,500 at the Civic Center to $9,500. Were it not for significant corporate donations, the event would have lost money, Baumblatt said. For its final year, the event will be at Inn On The Park, which gave OutReach a rent break, she said.

OutReach leaders think they can get a better return on their investment and still provide a meaningful social experience by moving the event off of New Year's Eve, perhaps to a Mardi Gras-themed party. Costs would go down because OutReach would no longer be competing for space and entertainers on such a competitive night.

Hughet, who is no longer involved in the event he helped start, said he supports the decision.

"Why spin your wheels competing against everything else when you could have your own night?"

He said he's proud that the party generated so much goodwill for the LGBT community and OutReach. But he's not sentimental about its end.

"I think it has run its course," said Hughet, an agent with Stark Realty. "Sometimes the next course of events is that a party like this just needs to die, and then you turn it into something else that generates more energy. Maybe in 15 years, we'll come back with another Pink Party."

[detsaoT]

"I just remember standing there thinking, 'How cool is this to have a public space like the Civic Center with all these same-sex couples dancing in full view of everyone on State Street,'" said Paul Hughet, who came up with the idea for the Pink Party and led the event its first four years.

Nice priorities.

[SteveMcKing]

Were it not for significant corporate donations, the event would have lost money,

They don't think that would have been better donated for Christmas toys for orphans or something, instead of a gay dance party...

[alloysteel]

I left Wisconsin years ago, when references to "pink" reflected a sympathy toward Marxist socialism.

Perhaps "pink" still has that association and connotation. It is well worth noting, however, that one of the first groups wiped out under the stern hand of Stalinism were those of deviant sexual orientation, because they were deemed not politically reliable in the era of the New Soviet Man.