Local
Deborah Cox to headline Capital Pride Festival
5 local activists named community ‘Heroes’
Deborah Cox will headline the Capital Pride Festival on Sunday, June 10. (Courtesy photo)
Capital Pride this week announced the recipients of its annual Heroes Awards, along with the entertainment lineup for the 37th annual parade and street festival set for June 9-10.
Dance diva Deborah Cox will headline the festival on Sunday. Cox, a 37-year-old hit-maker famous for songs like “Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here,” “I Never Knew” and “Mr. Lonely” (she’s had nine No. 1s on the Billboard U.S. dance chart), told the Blade she sees gay audiences connecting with her songs on a deeper level than straight audiences.
“Their reaction is more heightened with emotion,” she said. “There’s something about the songs that really connects. Maybe it reminds them of when they came out or when they met their partner. I hear many stories about that. The straight crowd connects with the songs, but I think the gay community … there’s just a connection to the stories in the songs.”
Also performing Sunday at the festival will be fellow dance artist Crystal Waters and a diverse array of entertainers, including Alma Tropicalia, Aiden Leslie, Crys Matthews, Simulover and 13-year-old dynamo Ani Hesse.
“I’m so excited,” Ani told the Blade. “I love performing for big audiences. I can’t wait.”
Capital Pride also announced the recipients of this year’s Heroes Awards. They are: Andrew Barnett, executive director of SMYAL; Ebone Bell, founder of B.O.I. Marketing & Promotions and the Capital Queer Prom; Michelle Benecke, co-founder of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network; Kevin Platte, founder of the DC Cowboys Dance Company; and Justin B. Terry-Smith, an Air Force veteran and HIV/AIDS activist who founded the blog Justin’s HIV Journal.
The honorees will be recognized at the Capital Pride Heroes Gala & Silent Auction on Wednesday, May 30, 6:30-9:30 p.m. at LivingSocial, 918 F St., N.W. For more information, visit capitalpride.org.
Photos
PHOTOS: Helen Hayes Awards
Gay Men’s Chorus, local drag artists have featured performance at ceremony
The 41st Helen Hayes Awards were held at The Anthem on Monday, May 19. Felicia Curry and Mike Millan served as the hosts.
A performance featuring members of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington and local drag artists was held at the end of the first act of the program to celebrate WorldPride 2025.
The annual awards ceremony honors achievement in D.C.-area theater productions and is produced by Theatre Washington.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
District of Columbia
Laverne Cox, Reneé Rapp, Deacon Maccubbin named WorldPride grand marshals
Three LGBTQ icons to lead parade
WorldPride organizers announced Thursday that actress and trans activist Laverne Cox, powerhouse performer Reneé Rapp, and LGBTQ trailblazer Deacon Maccubbin will serve as grand marshals for this year’s WorldPride parade.
The Capital Pride Alliance, which is organizing WorldPride 2025 in Washington, D.C., revealed the honorees in a press release, noting that each has made a unique contribution to the fabric of the LGBTQ community.
Cox made history in 2014 as the first openly transgender person nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category for her role in Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black.” She went on to win a Daytime Emmy in 2015 for her documentary “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word,” which followed seven young trans people as they navigated coming out.
Rapp, a singer and actress who identifies as a lesbian, rose to prominence as Regina George in the Broadway musical “Mean Girls.” She reprised the role in the 2024 film adaptation and also stars in Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” portraying a character coming to terms with her sexuality. Rapp has released an EP, “Everything to Everyone,” and an album, “Snow Angel.” She announced her sophomore album, “Bite Me,” on May 21 and is slated to perform at the WorldPride Music Festival at the RFK Festival Grounds.
Deacon Maccubbin, widely regarded as a cornerstone of Washington’s LGBTQ+ history, helped organize D.C.’s first Gay Pride Party in 1975. The event took place outside Lambda Rising, one of the first LGBTQ bookstores in the nation, which Maccubbin founded. For his decades of advocacy and activism, he is often referred to as “the patriarch of D.C. Pride.”
“I am so honored to serve as one of the grand marshals for WorldPride this year. This has been one of the most difficult times in recent history for queer and trans people globally,” Cox said. “But in the face of all the rhetorical, legislative and physical attacks, we continue to have the courage to embrace who we truly are, to celebrate our beauty, resilience and bravery as a community. We refuse to allow fear to keep us from ourselves and each other. We remain out loud and proud.”
“Pride is everything. It is protection, it is visibility, it is intersectional. But most importantly, it is a celebration of existence and protest,” Rapp said.
The three will march down 14th Street for the WorldPride Parade in Washington on June 7.
2025 D.C. Trans Pride was held at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library on Saturday, May 17. The day was filled with panel discussions, art, social events, speakers, a resource fair and the Engendered Spirit Awards. Awardees included Lyra McMillan, Pip Baitinger, Steph Niaupari and Hayden Gise. The keynote address was delivered by athlete and advocate Schuyler Bailar.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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