Organizers of D.C.’s Capital Pride parade scheduled for Saturday, June 10, and the Capital Pride Festival scheduled for Sunday, June 11, which were expected to draw hundreds of thousands of spectators and participants, are monitoring the air quality situation following the Code Red hazardous alert issued by city officials on Wednesday and Thursday.

D.C. officials issued the alerts after massive smoke clouds caused by dozens of Canadian wildfires moved into the mid-Atlantic region, including the D.C. metropolitan area, on Wednesday and were expected to remain in the area at least through Thursday and possibly Friday.

“As with all concerns regarding health and safety issues, the Capital Pride Alliance will monitor the air quality situation resulting from Canadian wildfire smoke and take necessary precautions in consultation with our partners in the D.C. government,” said Ryan Bos, executive director of the Capital Pride Alliance, which organizes D.C.’s annual Pride parade, festival, and other Pride events.

“Any updates or changes will be posted on our website and social media,” Bos told the Washington Blade.

Local and national meteorologists said late Wednesday that it was uncertain whether atmospheric conditions would push the smoke clouds away from the D.C. area by Saturday and Sunday. But they said with rain not expected to come to the region until Monday, the poor air quality could last through the weekend.

In response to an inquiry from the Blade, Dr. Sara Henn, the Chief Health Officer at D.C.’s Whitman-Walker Health, urged those planning to attend the weekend Pride events to “keep an eye on the Air Quality Index (AQI),” which provides the status of the air quality.

“If it is orange or red or purple you may want to modify your plans,” Henn said. She was referring to the AQI score of orange, which is considered potentially harmful to people in risk groups such as the elderly, pregnant women, and people with lung or heart conditions.

The “red” AQI reading is considered to be unhealthy for most or all people regardless of the state of their health. A “purple” AQI reading is considered dangerous for everyone.

“A lot will depend on the wind and how it changes over the next couple of days,” Henn said. “Even healthy regular runners should reduce their outdoor activities on red air quality days and if the air quality is purple people really should stay indoors and events should be rescheduled, if possible,” Henn said.

Henn said those spending time outdoors on code red days should use the KN95 face masks that were considered protective against the COVID virus during the pandemic years.

“Wear them when you are outside to help protect yourself against the air pollution and take them off indoors,” Henn said.

Among those scheduled to participate in the Capital Pride Parade is D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. 

The mayor’s office released a statement on Wednesday reminding city residents that the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment issued a “Code Red” air quality alert for Wednesday, June 7, and Thursday, June 8.

“Smoke from Canadian wildfires is causing unhealthy air quality in the Washington, D.C. area and the northeast United States, and this problem is likely to continue through Friday,” the mayor’s statement says.

D.C. Health and DOEE recommend that residents pay attention to local air quality reports and the U.S. Air Quality Index at airnow.gov,” the statement says.

More information on air quality can be found here.

White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden, during a call with reporters on Wednesday, announced a slate of new actions the administration will undertake to better protect the LGBTQ community.

These will focus on three major areas, she said: safety and security, issues for LGBTQ youth like mental health and housing insecurity, and combatting book bans.

President Joe Biden has “already developed a historic record of supporting the LGBTQ community,” Tanden said, noting that he and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden are also prepared to “host the largest Pride celebration in White House history” on Thursday evening.

At the same time, she said, LGBTQ Americans are now experiencing “a whole range of attacks” from “hateful, un-American legislation” to “a disturbing surge in violent threats.”

Administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the administration’s “community safety partnership” will “work hand in hand with LGBTQ community organizations” to provide safety training and resources, Tanden said.

For example, she said, “and it’s so unfortunate to have to say this,” but the partnership will help LGBTQ community centers “prepare for the worst” – including “bomb threats, active shooters, and cybersecurity threats – while also protecting “healthcare providers who serve the community by working with doctors and medical associations.”

Actions for LGBTQ kids that Tanden previewed on Wednesday include HHS’s development of a behavioral health care advisory for transgender and gender diverse youth, to help ensure young people are given the best evidence-based care.

On Thursday, she said, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will launch federal initiatives to combat LGBTQ youth homelessness and new regulations to “protect LGBTQ kids in foster care.”

Finally, Tanden said, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights “will appoint a new coordinator” to combat book bans, which disproportionately target, for exclusion, materials with LGBTQ characters or themes, or communities of color.

DoE’s coordinator will “offer trainings and resources to schools to help them understand that students have a right to learn free from discrimination, and that book bands may violate federal civil rights laws if they create a hostile environment for students,” Tanden said.

A senior administration official, responding to a question from the Washington Blade following Tanden’s remarks, elaborated on the scope of the community safety partnership.

Community organizations, they said, will include “health clinics, community centers, and organizations that are planning Pride celebrations, but it also includes small businesses like restaurants and bars that have been targeted because they’re run by LGBTQI+ Americans or because they host events that support that community.”

“We’ll be encouraging and reaching out directly to organizations that have been impacted by these violent threats to help make sure that they have the training and the resources they need to stay safe,” the official said.

They added that DHS and DoJ, in anticipation of the possibility that threats will increase in June, “have both been working proactively over many months leading up to Pride to communicate with state and local law enforcement about the threats that the community may face and to help local pride organizers get access to any federal safety resources they may need to help keep the community safe.”

Asked to explain how HHS’s healthcare focused initiatives will be reconciled with restrictions targeting medical interventions for trans youth in conservative states, the official noted ongoing efforts to fight back – including by federal rulemaking and litigated challenges of policies that violate Americans’ rights.

When it comes to the actions previewed by Tanden, the official said, “Almost half of LGBTQI+ youth say they seriously considered committing suicide in the past year, and that attacks on their rights have made their mental health worse. That’s a serious crisis that we want to take on and this advisory will help.”

Additionally, they said, “HHS is announcing that they’re going to release new guidance to states to help them use federal funds to offer dedicated mental health services to the LGBTQI+ community,” while “the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMSA, is releasing $1.7 million in new federal funding for programs that support the health and mental health of LGBTQI+ youth by investing in programs that are focused on family affirmation.”

Responding to other questions about anti-LGBTQ legislation and the rising transphobic and anti-LGBTQ sentiment in America, the official offered some insight into the Biden-Harris administration’s positions on these matters more broadly.

“Part of our role here is to lift up the stories of transgender kids and their families to help the American people understand what is happening to families who, as the President says aren’t hurting anyone but are being hurt by these laws,” said the official.

“These aren’t just attacks on the rights of LGBTQI+{ Americans, they are part and parcel of a coordinated attack on our democracy,” they said. “We’re not just talking about laws that target transgender kids. These are really laws that get at the heart of our basic freedoms and values: the right to free expression, the right to make decisions about your own body, the right to parent and raise your children.”

The official added, “Opponents of LGBTQI+ Americans are leading a pretty significant campaign of disinformation,” which have included “the same types of hateful lies and stereotypes that have been used against our community really for decades and for generations.”

U.S. Army General Mark Milley, chair of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CNN’s Oren Liebermann during an interview Monday that last week’s cancellation of a drag show at Nellis Air Force base in Nevada was “the absolute right thing to do.”

The top U.S. military officer said the decision came from U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, but added that he agreed with the move.

A Pentagon source familiar with the matter told the Washington Blade on Thursday that Milley informed Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr. that it is not Pentagon policy to fund drag shows on bases and the show needed to be canceled or moved off base. 

He echoed those comments during Monday’s interview, asserting that the performances “were never part of [Department of Defense] policy to begin with, and they’re certainly not funded by federal funds.”

“DoD resources should be used for mission-essential operations, not diverted toward initiatives that create cultural fissures within our service ranks,” anti-LGBTQ U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said in a May 23 letter to Milley and Austin.

“I find it completely unacceptable that DoD is using taxpayer dollars to fund DEI programs that are divisive in nature,” said Gaetz, referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion – programs typically administered by corporations that have increasingly become targets of conservative outrage.

Milley pushed back on accusations that the military had “gone woke” during the interview, which took place in Normandy, France, marking the 79th anniversary of the D-Day invasion into Nazi-occupied Europe on June 6, 1944.