On Wednesday afternoon, the Space Needle posted a clarifying messaging to their Facebook page after some push back from a handfull of people when the Space Needle issued a fundraising challenge in response to a community call to raise the Pride flag led by Josh Castle’s Change.org petition.

Their new statement makes it absolutely clear that the Space Needle will raise the Pride flag during Seattle Pride weekend. They also want to continue to raise $50,000 through an online fundraiser to help four LGBT charities. This is a real win/win for everyone involved. Those passionate about the Pride flag will get to see it on the Space Needle again. Those who know how desperately our community needs financial support will have a tool to raise $50,000. The Space Needle kicked off the fundraiser with a $5,000 contribution of their own.

Here is the complete statement from the Space Needle:

We are thrilled to report that since Monday we have raised more than $13,000 towards our goal of $50,000 for LGBT charities. Our sincere intention is to reach out to the LGBT community to raise money for these important organizations and to proudly fly the Pride flag on the top of the Space Needle. We are on our way to our fundraising goal and will be just as excited as the community to see the Pride flag raised on the Space Needle. Please join us in this effort to raise $50,000 or more for the GSBA Scholarship Fund, Lambda Legal, It Gets Better, and Mary’s Place! This is not the first time the Space Needle has organized fundraisers for the community. We had a competition between the Huskies and the Cougars in which the school with the most donations was honored with their flag on the Space Needle. We raised more than $160,000 for the Habitat for Humanity during this fundraiser in less than 14 days. We have challenged many charitable organizations to raise money for humanitarian causes such as our Tree for All holiday project to light our tree at the base of the Needle. This current fundraiser is a way to raise money for people in the LGBT community who especially need it, such as helping LGBT students pay for college, giving LGBT youth the support they need to keep from contemplating suicide, providing homeless women a safe LGBT friendly place, and providing legal representation to LGBT persons and causes. This was a way the Space Needle could not only raise the Pride flag, but give back even more to the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender community. The Needle has turned down 8 requests this year alone, but it is because of the overwhelming support for this cause that created the opportunity for us to lead the fundraising for these organizations. Again, our sincere intention is to reach out to the LGBT community to help raise money for these important organizations and to proudly fly the Pride flag on the top of the Space Needle. Please join us!

If you would like to contribute towards the $50,000 fundraising goal, you can contribute here: http://goo.gl/PXf9a

Let’s hope for a sunny and beautiful Pride weekend. The flag is going to look magnificent. Even more importantly, four amazing charities are going to get a lot of support from our community. The Space Needle has clearly demonstrated they care about our community. They could have easily just raised the flag, but instead they are going to both raise the flag, and raise money for our community at the same time. This is simply an incredible outcome. Thank you very much to everyone who made this possible.

Now let’s go raise some money for charity! http://goo.gl/PXf9a

Disclosure: Joe Mirabella is an Organizing Manger at Change.org. He volunteers on several non-profits’ boards, including the GSBA. The Space Needle is a member of GSBA. The charities were chosen independently by the Space Needle. The opinons in the post are entirely his own.