A Seattle pastor is calling for an apology from the city’s mayor following a violent clash at a Christian prayer rally in the heart of a historically LGBT-dominant neighborhood.
The May 24 rally at Cal Anderson Park, organized by pro-life group Mayday USA for its “DontMessWithOurKids” national tour, drew hundreds of supporters holding signs supporting the sanctity of life, biological gender, the nuclear family and religious freedom.
A short time later, pro-LGBT counter-protesters confronted the group. Waving transgender flags, they reportedly clashed with police in riot gear and threw water bottles and other objects.
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Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers were trying to keep two different protest groups separated and saw “multiple people inside one group throw items at the opposing group” shortly after 1:30 p.m., according to a news release.
When officers moved to arrest the people responsible, they were assaulted by more protesters, according to the SPD. The situation escalated over the course of several hours, resulting in 22 adults arrested for assault and obstruction and one juvenile detained, police said.
One officer was treated and released from the hospital for an injury sustained during the protests, according to an SPD spokesperson.
Video footage from the rally shared on social media showed two protesters who jumped a police barrier to gain access to the stage before being removed by security.
According to an event listing, organizers of the counter-protest, which they labeled “Keep Your Bibles Off Our Bodies,” included the Freedom Socialist Party, Puget Sound Mobilization for Reproductive Justice and Radical Women.
Following the rally, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, a Democrat, released a statement in apparent support of the LGBT protesters and called the Christian worship gather a “far-right rally” that sought to “provoke a reaction by promoting beliefs that are inherently opposed to our city’s values, in the heart of Seattle’s most prominent [LGBT] neighborhood.”
“I am grateful for those who make their voices heard in support of our neighbors without resorting to violence,” Harrell said. “In the face of an extreme right-wing national effort to attack our [LGBT] communities, Seattle will continue to stand unwavering in our embrace of diversity, love for our neighbors, and commitment to justice and fairness.”
After blaming the violence on “anarchists” who he said “infiltrated the counter-protestors group,” the mayor also announced that he ordered parks officials to conduct a review to determine “whether there were legal location alternatives or other adjustments that could have been pursued.”
The Pursuit NW, a multi-campus Evangelical church in the Seattle area, slammed Harrell’s remarks as “religious bigotry” on social media and called for Harrell to either apologize or resign.
Russell Johnson, lead pastor at Pursuit NW, wrote Sunday on X: “[Harrell] owes Christians in [Washington] State an apology or his bigoted remarks after folks who were holding a peaceful worship event at Cal Anderson Park were violently assaulted for the high crime of expressing their deeply held religious beliefs in the form of a permitted worship event on city property.”
He criticized Seattle’s “inept political leadership” and the mayor for being “an embarrassment to the Emerald City.”
After citing Harrell’s 1996 arrest on weapons and assault charges for brandishing a firearm on a pregnant woman over a parking spot, Johnson slammed Harrell’s leadership record.
“The Mayor is on his third police chief since taking office. No one wants to work for him. His own family can’t stand him. And Antifa gets a free pass from him.
“I guess pulling guns on pregnant women isn’t enough for Mayor Harrell,” Johnson continued. “He’s now got to blame Christians for a city that he has let go to hell.”
Johnson also shared a video, which showed counter-protesters crashing through a police barricade as Mayday USA performed a worship concert at Cal Anderson Park.
The @MayorofSeattle owes Christians in WA State an apology for his bigoted remarks after folks who were holding a peaceful worship event at Cal Anderson Park were violently assaulted for the high crime of expressing their deeply held religious beliefs in the form of a permitted… pic.twitter.com/sxP1fHWR75
— Russell Johnson (@russellbjohnson) May 25, 2025
City officials have taken political positions against Christians in recent years, most notably with missionary and political activist Sean Feucht in September 2020 when the city shut down a local park to prevent him from hosting a prayer rally on Labor Day while allowing protesters to engage in violent protests.
Despite efforts by Seattle Parks and Recreation to halt the event at Gas Works Park, more than 2,000 Christians ultimately gathered in the streets of Seattle in a “worship protest” during the height of the coronavirus shutdown.
