Last year, for the first time, the Space Needle in Seattle, Wash., flew the Pride Flag over the Pride Parade in June. So naturally, when the LGBT community approached the folks who own the Space Needle this year about doing it again, they were expecting a hearty “Hells yes!”

Imagine their surprise when they got a hearty “Hells no!”

A fella named James Castle put a petition up on Change.org asking people to join him in his call to the Space Needle to change its mind, and got over 9,000 signatures. So in a great show of generosity (or as the Seattlest put it, “this new back-pedaling/extortion which you are attempting to pull off as a kind of “support”), the Space Needle people have decided to wave the Pride Flag again this year ... if the LGBT community can raise $50,000 for four LGBT charities of the Space Needle company’s choosing. And to put the icing on the cake, the Space Needle folks even started the donating with $5,000.

Somehow we think they should be going bigger.

“The “It Gets Better Project” is about letting LGBT youth know that they have a bright future and that they should never be ashamed of who they are. Involving the entire community in an effort to raise the Pride Flag on Gay Pride Weekend– and doing it in a way that supports services for gay youth and others in our community — makes a powerful statement about our commitment to improving their futures,” says Dan Savage.

If you'd like to donate to the cause, they've got a FundRazr up on Facebook. Last night, they'd managed to raise about $12,000.