Washington Lawmakers Claim Pizza Party Turns Kids Gay
The Ellensburg City Council defunded a weekly pizza party for LGBTQ youth, but community members found away to save the program.
A city council in central Washington cut funding for Pizza Klatch, a program for LGBTQ youth, after a councilman claimed the program indoctrinates “impressionable” youth and turns them gay or transgender.
The Ellensburg City Council adopted an amendment prohibiting taxpayer dollars from being used to fund the event, a program run in partnership with local LGBTQ nonprofit Helen House.
Held weekly, Pizza Klatch brings together over two dozen youths at Ellensburg High School and gives them a safe space to congregate and socialize with one another over pizza during their lunch period. The program had previously been funded by the city’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commission.
The amendment was offered by Councilman Joshua Thompson in response to a presentation from the commission regarding its 2025 budget. The commission requested a $10,000 budget for 2025, with a $1,400 yearly allocation for the Pizza Klatch program.
The conservative councilman objected to the program, arguing that it could be harmful to students because it would unduly influence them into identifying as LGBTQ and potentially pursuing a gender transition if they identify as transgender, reported the Daily Record.
Thompson also objected to the lack of parental consent required to participate in the program, which is open to all students. He said high schoolers are “highly impressionable” and stated his belief that the city should not be spending taxpayer dollars “on what could and has separated kids from their parents.”
Councilwoman Nancy Goodloe argued that the program benefits the mental health of LGBTQ students. Councilwoman Sarah Beauchamp, the mother of a transgender child, argued that the program is for kids “to hang out and have friendships.” She rejected the notion that the program is encouraging children who are not LGBTQ to identify as such.
“We are not making them transgender,” she said. “We’re not turning them homosexual by having a place for them to gather and feel safe.”
Still, Thompson continued to push for the defunding of the program and suggested that the $1,400 be cut from the DEI commission’s budget entirely. The amendment was ultimately rejected by a 6-1 margin, reported Yakima-based NBC affiliate WNDO.
Councilman Delano Palmer proposed another amendment that would have allowed the DEI commission to run the Pizza Klatch program but would require them to obtain parental permission from individual students’ parents before students could attend the weekly pizza parties. That amendment also failed, 5-2.
Finally, Councilwoman Nancy Lillquist proposed an amendment to allocate the $1,400 to other programs run by the DEI commission, and required the Pizza Klatch to be funded using private sources of income. That amendment was approved on a 4-3 vote.
Ellensburg resident Steve Verhey, who ran against Thompson in the 2023 election, criticized the defunding on Facebook.
“This right here is why I ran against Joshua Thompson for city council,” he wrote. “Ellensburg does not need a homophobic evangelical Christian on city council. How a majority of the council, however narrow, went for this is beyond me.”
Thompson posted on his own Facebook page that he “will not apologize.”
Verhey organized an online crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe, raising over $3,500 — nearly two-and-a-half times what’s needed to fund Pizza Klatch for the next year — through donations from local community members.
“In a move launched by Ellensburg City Council newbie Joshua Thompson, the city has cut funding for an LGBTQ+ activity at Ellensburg High School from the city’s Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Commission’s budget,” Verhey wrote on the GoFundMe page.
“Meanwhile, the Ellensburg School District is currently negotiating over whether to settle with, or be sued by, the Justice Department over repeated incidents of bullying at EHS, most notably of LGBTQ+ students. The bullying was, of course, carried out by the children of community members, probably including Ellensburg residents,” the description continues. “This fundraiser is to replace the money cut from the budget so that the activity can continue to support students.”
Verhey told WNDO that he hopes that funding for the program won’t always have to come from the public.
“It should have continued to be funded by the city,” he said. “And after this next year, maybe the issue can be revisited.”
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