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Thousands expected at Capital Pride this weekend
Annual event began as block party outside Lambda Rising in 1975
Last year’s Capital Pride. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
Thousands are expected to attend Capital Pride’s annual parade and festival this weekend in the nation’s capital.
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Lynda Carter and Brigadier Gen. Tammy S. Smith of the U.S. Army Reserve, who became the first openly gay and lesbian flag officer to serve in the military, will serve as grand marshals of the parade that will start at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday at 22nd and P Streets, N.W., in Dupont Circle. It will end on 14th and R Streets, N.W., at Whitman-Walker Health.
The 17th annual Capital Pride Street Festival will take place on Pennsylvania Avenue between 3rd and 7th Streets, N.W., from noon to 7 p.m. on Sunday. Emeli Sandé, Icona Pop and Cher Lloyd will headline the main stage. Tom Goss and Eric Himan will also perform during the event.
NBC4 forecasts partly cloudy skies with a high temperature of 83 degrees on Saturday and a chance of thunderstorms on Sunday with an afternoon high of 83 degrees.
Pride committee chooses superhero theme
Capital Pride Executive Director Ryan Bos highlighted this year’s theme as he discussed the annual event.
“We wanted to have a little more fun with the theme and identified something that the community could rally around, dress up as a costume and participate,” he told the Washington Blade. “We thought it was really easy for folks to grab a hold of.”
What became known as Capital Pride traces its history to a one-day community block party that then-Lambda Rising bookstore owner Deacon Maccubbin first held on 20th Street, N.W., in Dupont Circle in 1975.
The P Street Festival Committee in 1980 took over what had become known as Gay Pride Day. It relocated the festival to Francis Junior High School, and became known as Gay and Lesbian Pride Day in 1981.
Pride of Washington succeeded the P Street Festival Committee in 1990.
The festival began to suffer from financial difficulties a few years later. One In Ten, the organization that produces the Reel Affirmations film festival, took over the Pride events. The group then moved the street festival to Freedom Plaza on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Capital Pride culminates month of LGBT gatherings
The parade and festival will cap off a series of events over the last few weeks that celebrated the Pride season.
These include an immigration reform panel and a bilingual Mass that took place during the seventh annual D.C. Latino Pride on May 30 and June 2. Casa Ruby and 10 other Latino LGBT groups organized what they described as an alternative to D.C. Latino Pride with events that will take place from June 4-9.
The 23rd annual D.C. Black Pride took place from May 23-25. Capital Trans Pride took place at the National City Christian Church in Thomas Circle on May 18.
D.C. Frontrunners will hold its first annual Pride Run 5K in Congressional Cemetery in Southeast D.C. at 7 p.m. on Friday.
Brian Beary, race director for D.C. Frontrunners, said 750 participants have signed up to take part in the race. He said 50 percent of the event’s proceeds will go to Team D.C.’s scholarship fund for gay high school students who hope to attend college.
“This is a way to kick-off your Pride weekend,” Beary said.
The 2013 Capital Pride Parade route.
2013 Capital Pride Street Festival.
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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