For 28 years, Freddie Lutz and Johnny Cervantes have been through nearly everything together. From starting one of the most successful and well-known LGBTQ bars in the DMV — Freddie’s Beach Bar and later opening a second location in Rehoboth — to navigating a pandemic and even overcoming death threats for supporting the LGBTQ community, the pair has been through a lot.

So it only makes sense for them to take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and get married in the middle of the WorldPride parade as it makes its way down 14th Street.

For the longest time, the couple had contemplated getting married, but according to Lutz, none of those times felt quite right.

“When they passed gay marriage in Virginia, I asked him if he wanted to get married the following day,” Lutz told the Blade. “And [Cervantes] said, ‘No, but you can take me to Tiffany’s.’”

Cervantes shared that although the thought had crossed his mind, he had seen the two as committed long before the courts deemed them worthy.

“I don’t think it was until about 2009 that we really considered marriage,” Cervantes said. “We had gone to some fundraiser where Gavin Newsom was speaking — he was such an advocate for gay rights and gay marriage, that that’s what kind of got us both thinking. Like any other marginalized group, you learn to feel that you’re not worthy, that you’re not entitled to certain rights. However, his speech at that time got us realizing that we were worthy and were entitled to marriage.”

“We still hadn’t taken advantage of marriage because it’s like—we have our daily lives together, both in Arlington and in Rehoboth,” Cervantes added. “I think spiritually, we have been committed as if we were married to each other. Going through a ceremony wouldn’t change things.”

Another—and seemingly bigger—concern the pair had about throwing a wedding was who would make the guest list—and which one of their friends would have to sit out due to the nature of hosting such an event.

“We’ve thought about getting married a few times over the past 28 years, but we know so many people that I said to him, ‘Oh my gosh, where would we cut off the invitation list?’ I’d have a lot of pissed off people at me. This way, we’re literally inviting the entire world,” Lutz said.

And invite the world they have. As their home becomes the center of the gay universe this week with WorldPride coming to Washington, the pair decided to get married with some special help and support from the Equality Chamber of Commerce DC (ECCDC).

“If you know Freddie, the idea of his wedding being in the middle of a Pride parade embodies the joy of who he is and his whole spirit,” said Kat Dean, director of the Equality Chamber Foundation. “It was this perfect alignment of continuing to lift up queer economic empowerment and give the spotlight back onto him. I mean, this is what we do as a chamber. Our whole purpose is to continue to uplift businesses—and this is a great way for us to uplift a cornerstone of queer businesses in the area. He’s brought a lot of joy and community into a lot of people’s lives. This is our way of kind of thanking him for the work that he’s done by serving the community.”

When asked what has been the most exciting part of making this idea a reality, Dean—one of the float’s original concept creators and one of the people responsible for the Pride Parade wedding idea—was ready with an answer.

“To watch the design that’s being built by this incredible designer, and seeing that concept start to come to life—it’s been, honestly, a lot of joy when a project like this unfolds,” she said. “Kevin Fenton is the designer from Walla Design that has helped with the marketing and the branding of this. He’s been really integral in pushing out the message and has done a really fabulous job. August Henney designed the float. We’ve received some donated material as well and some support from the community. But really, it’s less about the organizations that have been helping, and more about the individuals who are helping to build the float, to get it up there. There’s some people from our board, some volunteers from our community—a bunch of people coming together to help make this super duper fun.”

This project has been in the works since February, according to Dean, and was inspired by her own recent path to marriage.

“We knew that we, ECCDC, were going to have a float in the parade. We got approved at the beginning of the year that we were actually able to have a float,” Dean said. “I believe it was because of our February Chamber Connect [the monthly networking series], that was conveniently at Freddie’s. But that was not the correlation at the time. It was at Freddie’s in Arlington, but no direct tie-in at all that it had come out.”

“My partner and I had just decided to get engaged and get married,” she added. “The chamber was still coming up with what the idea was for the float, and one conversation led to the next, and the topic of gay marriage came up. The day after the Chamber Connect, I sent out an email—I think at like 6:30 in the morning—to a couple people that I started talking to, including our executive director, and said, ‘Hey, here’s a rough idea following our conversation from last night,’ and everyone just jumped on it.”

As discussions of logistics continued, Dean and her wife took some time to get married ahead of the chaos of WorldPride. This led them to a mini-honeymoon in Rehoboth, where they met Lutz.

“We connected with Freddie and we were talking to him about our wedding. My wife and I were actually in Rehoboth, and we were having a little ‘mini-moon’ there after we just got married. We were telling him about the wedding and the decision of why we wanted to get married sooner rather than later.”

“He told me that he had had similar thoughts with his partner of 28 years, and they were deciding to do the same thing. And after a couple orange crushes, I turned and looked at him, and I said, ‘Hey, how about you do this in the middle of the Pride parade? We’ve got a chapel already being built.’ It was fate! This was almost identical to the idea that he and Johnny wanted to have, and there was just no better choice for us than having somebody who’s been an incredible member of the DMV queer community and an awesome chamber member for many years.”

Lutz explained that this organic conversation between the two sparked an unexpected but perfect alignment of dreams and opportunity.

“I have a second Freddie’s location in Rehoboth Beach, and I’m literally down there two weeks ago, and I’m chatting this girl up at the bar, and she says, ‘I’m with the Equality Chamber of Washington. We are doing a wedding chapel float in the WorldPride Parade,’” Lutz said. “And I said, ‘Wait, what? That’s my all-time dream—to get married on a Pride float with Johnny.’ I couldn’t believe it. I’ve been actually thinking about doing a wedding float with Freddie’s for years—I’ve been talking about it for years. So she says to me, ‘We’re going to be marrying several couples on the float. Would you like to be one of them?’ And I said, ‘No, but if you’ll do just us and let me put Freddie’s signage on the float, I’ll do it.’”

“I do think I probably owe that couple [Dean and her wife] a nice wedding gift,” Lutz added, laughing.

“I know that this is something that he always wanted,” Cervantes said. “Freddie and I are like yin and yang. We’re almost exact opposites of each other. And I like to think I bring the voice of reason to the relationship and he brings creativity and excitement.”

The meeting of Dean and Lutz in an LGBTQ bar—which ultimately led to the wedding coming to fruition—closely mirrors how the soon-to-be-wed grooms first met.

The couple met in another of Washington’s best-known LGBTQ institutions—JR.’s.

“I was actually meeting with a group of people, and we were celebrating my birthday and my friend Dylan’s birthday,” Lutz said. “We all met for a drink at JR.’s, and then went to dinner at Trumpets. Johnny was sitting way down at the end of the table, and I kept looking at him, and that’s how we met.”

The opportunity Lutz and Cervantes had to meet—specifically at an LGBTQ-run business—is exactly the message Dean hopes to highlight with the float and with ECCDC overall.

“We keep going with this tagline—‘Love is good for business,’” Dean said. “Support of queer economic power. But it’s also to remind you guys that we’re here to support you and support our community in whatever it is that they’re doing. We’re just really excited to share in the joy and share in Pride with everyone.”

“I’m so excited,” Lutz said. “I can’t believe that this dropped in my lap just two weeks ago. I mean, we just agreed to do it six days ago.”

“It’s going to be fun,” Cervantes said. “I’ve ridden with Fred in the Pride Parade—just what to expect from the crowd and the number of people there—and it’s always very friendly and celebratory, and I think that’s going to just make our event even more special.”

As the parade rolls through the heart of D.C., the float will transform into the ultimate queer altar, giving the couple the chance to say “I do” while the world celebrates love, visibility, and acceptance around them.

The Little Gay Chapel will be decorated to the nines—with floral arrangements, music, signage, and surprise elements—making it a rolling celebration of queer joy. The float will travel down the increasingly queer 14th Street, pass through Thomas Circle, and head toward Pennsylvania Avenue, where the celebration will culminate at the annual Tea Dance Party overlooking the U.S. Capitol.

When asked if there was anything special about the float—besides the fact that a whole wedding would be taking place as the Little Gay Chapel travels down 14th Street—Lutz said to keep an eye out for the outfits and party invitations.

“I asked them to build a little box for Johnny, because he’s shorter than I, and he will be in black tails with a top hat, and I’ll be in white tails with a white bow tie and a white dress under it,” Lutz said, beaming while showing the Blade inspirational images of the outfits. “And the wedding reception invitation that will be passed out along the parade route says, ‘You are cordially invited to drag your gay asses across the river to celebrate the marriage of Freddie Lutz and Johnny Cervantes at Freddie’s Beach Bar, the only straight-friendly gay bar in Northern Virginia.’”

In lieu of the right-wing takeover both in the government and the country as a whole, the current view of patriotism from marginalized communities is often seen as supportive of patriarchal, misogynistic, and anti-LGBTQ ideals. The patriot is often seen as someone who supports the idea that America is only one way and that way is one not so geared towards progress. Right now, there are plans in place for several marginalized people, whether they be queer or racial minorities, to perhaps abandon the country, or at the very least lose respect for it, given the whole passport debacle, because of how strong conservatives came in after the induction of the second Trump administration. The response is warranted. We are being told that who we are and what we stand for are not American.

I‘ve noticed that when people distance themselves from the idea of being American or a patriot, it allows these right-wing ideas to take over and distort the image of what being American means in a way that is unchallenged. It is manipulating the entire image of what it is like to be American, which is being presented as cisgender, straight, and white. Right now, transgender service men and women are having their right to serve this country stripped from them simply because of their gender identity. Their sacrifices are seen as wrong or even weak.

However, I feel like now is a time to bolster a new form of patriotism for those who are still here and cannot afford to leave. As WorldPride makes its way to Washington, D.C., I’ve taken a moment to reflect on what it is like to be both a queer and racial minority born and raised near the nation’s capital. I find that regardless of how much conservatism has emboldened right-wing supporters and clutched the federal government, I am very much proud to see the revolt and the pride that people have for who they are regardless of.

Living in a country founded on freedom and the right to self-actualization, that being proud of oneself, and fighting for the freedom to be oneself is innately American.

The intersectionality of being both queer and African American, paired with the historical knowledge of how both identities have been treated does in fact make it hard to be proud of the American title of ”patriot.” But the country and history of the country are not owned by the conservative body. Right now, they are scrambling and trying to control every facet to re-brand the image of what a patriot looks like to change both the history and future of America. 

With that being said and WorldPride merely days away, there now needs to be a call to maybe not reject patriotism, but reshape it into a form of patriotism that reflects the progress that marginalized communities wish to see. Marsha P. Johnson sparked a movement with her revolt at Stonewall, an act just as American as the shot heard around the world. Perseverance, courage and determination during this time is as American as it gets. Queer, trans, and other marginalized people are shining examples of what it means to be Americans. We give our time, money, and lives to make this country thrive. 

Though the past has been dark, stealing both land, people and ideologies from those deemed unfit to be seen as American, this is our country as much as it is theirs. The right feared the progress that was being made over the past decade and made their moves to halt it. Now is the time to counter those moves and show them what our patriotism looks like.

Editor’s note: Washington Blade International News Editor Michael K. Lavers was on assignment in Argentina and Uruguay from April 2-12, 2025.

ROSARIO, Argentina — Two transgender women in Argentina’s Santa Fe province are documenting the persecution of trans people that took place during the brutal military dictatorship that governed their country from 1976-1983.

Carolina Boetti and Marzia Echenique created the Travestí Trans Santa Fe Archive, which seeks to “create a collective memory,” in 2020. (“Travestí” is the Spanish word for “crossdresser.”)

The archive, among other things, includes interviews with trans women who the dictatorship arrested and tortured. The archive also contains photographs from that period.

The archive is not in a specific location, but Boetti and Echenique have given presentations at local schools and universities. They have also spoken at a museum in Rosario, the largest city in Santa Fe province that is roughly 200 miles northwest of Buenos Aires, the Argentine capital, that honors the dictatorship’s victims.

Boetti and Echenique during an April 11 interview at a Rosario hotel said they are trying to raise funds that would allow them to digitize the archive and house it in a permanent location.

“We have this material that is fantastic,” said Boetti.

The Associated Press notes human rights groups estimate the dictatorship killed or forcibly disappeared upwards of 30,000 people in what became known as the “dirty war.” The dictatorship specifically targeted students, journalists, labor union leaders, and anyone else who it thought posed a threat.

The dictatorship first detained Echenique in 1979 when she was 16. She said it targeted her and other trans women because they were “not within that strict” binary of man and woman.  

“There was a dictator during the dictatorship, and he dictated this binarism, and there was no other way than man or woman,” Echenique told the Blade. “Everything else was penalized, deprived of all rights. They took away everything.”

Boetti was 15 when the dictatorship first detained her.

“They detained me because of my sexual orientation,” she told the Blade. “Homosexuality in those years was penalized under the law.”

Boetti said the law in 1982 — the year when she began her transition — penalized crossdressing, prostitution and vagrancy with up to 120 days in jail. Boetti told the Blade that authorities “constantly detained me” from 1982 until she left Argentina in the 1990s.

Echenique said the regime once detained her for six months.

“The way of living, of studying, of walking freely down the street, of living somewhere, of sitting down to eat something in a bar or how we are sitting today, for example, was unthinkable in those years,” she said.

Echenique left Argentina in 1988, three years after the dictatorship ended. She returned to the country in 2006.

“The dictatorship ended in ’83, but not for the trans community,” she said.

Rosario and Santa Fe, the provincial capital, in 2018 implemented a reparation policy for trans people who suffered persecution under the dictatorship. They remain the only cities in Argentina with such a program.

Boetti on May 17, 2018, during an International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia ceremony over which then-Santa Fe Gov. Miguel Lifshitz presided became the first trans person in Argentina to receive reparations. Boetti receives a monthly pension of ARG 40,000 ($34.48) and a monthly stipend that pays for her health care.

Those who have received reparations successfully presented evidence to a judge that proved they suffered persecution and repression during the dictatorship. Boetti and Echenique pointed out that only 10 of the 50 trans women in Santa Fe who the dictatorship are known to have persecuted are still alive.

Post-dictatorship Argentina became global trans rights leader

Then-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in 2012 signed Argentina’s landmark Gender Identity Law that, among other things, allows trans and nonbinary people to legally change their gender without medical intervention. The country in 2010 extended marriage rights to same-sex couples.

Then-President Alberto Fernández, who is unrelated to Cristina Fernández, in 2020 signed the Trans Labor Quota Law, which set aside at least 1 percent of public sector jobs for trans people. Fernández in 2021 issued a decree that allowed nonbinary Argentines to choose an “X” gender marker on their National Identity Document or DNI.

Alba Rueda, a trans woman and well-known activist, in 2022 became Argentina’s special envoy for LGBTQ and intersex rights.

President Javier Milei has implemented several anti-trans measures since he took office in December 2023. These include a decree that restricts minors’ access to gender-affirming surgeries and hormone treatment and the dismissal of trans people who the government hired under the Trans Labor Quota Law.

Milei closed the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Racism, a government agency known by the acronym INADI that provided support and resources to people who suffered discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and other factors. He also eliminated Argentina’s Women, Gender, and Diversity Ministry under which Rueda worked until Fernández left office.

Gay Congressman Esteban Paulón, a long-time LGBTQ activist, in January filed a criminal complaint against Milei after he linked the LGBTQ community to pedophilia and made other homophobic and transphobic comments during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Paulón is among those who attended the 2018 ceremony during which Boetti received her reparations.

Echenique noted the restoration of democracy in Argentina did not end anti-trans discrimination and persecution in the country.

“We came from the period of the dictatorship, but we do not forget that everything didn’t end then,” she said. “The persecutions were worse than what we suffered during the period of the dictatorship once democracy returned.”

Boetti said she does not think Argentina will once again become a dictatorship under Milei.

“But unfortunately, there is a lot of harassment and a lot of hate speech,” said Boetti.

“There are now laws that protect us, but there is a fight for sure,” added Echenique. “I don’t think we’ll go back to how things were before, and that’s why I again emphasize the importance of archiving memory in this.”