Local
‘Walk to End HIV’ set for Saturday
7,000 expected for renamed event
AIDS Walk is now Walk to End HIV. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
As many as 7,000 people, including D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, were expected to descend on Freedom Plaza in downtown D.C. early Saturday morning, Oct. 25, for the 28th Annual Walk to End HIV.
The event, formerly known as AIDS Walk Washington, is produced by and serves as a benefit for Whitman-Walker Health and several of its community partners. Since the 1980s Whitman-Walker has provided HIV-related care and prevention programs along with other health services for the LGBT community and the broader D.C. community.
“Whitman-Walker Health announced in June that AIDS Walk Washington would become the first AIDS walk in the country to take the word ‘AIDS’ out of its name,” according to a statement issued by Whitman-Walker. “This was done to reflect the dramatic shift that’s been seen in the HIV epidemic over the past three decades – from a disease that led to rapid decline and almost certain death to a chronic, manageable condition.”
This year’s event includes both a walk and a run, with each traveling the same 5 kilometer route along sections of Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. and around part of the National Mall along Independence Avenue, S.W. The walk and run were to begin and end at Freedom Plaza.
Same-day registration and other activities, including an “uplifting program of music, speakers and warm-up exercises,” were set to begin at 7 a.m. at Freedom Plaza, which is located at 13th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., the Whitman-Walker statement says.
The 5k “timed” run was scheduled to begin at 9:15 a.m. The walk was scheduled to kick off at 9:20 a.m. A post-walk celebration, including performances and awards, was scheduled to begin in Freedom Plaza at 10 a.m.
Entertainment was to include performances by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, Shi-Queeta Lee and Drag City, and Kaution Dance Kru. Mayor Gray was scheduled to speak at the gathering, which was to be hosted by NBC4 TV anchors Aaron Gilchrist and Eun Yang.
Further details of the event can be found at walktoendhiv.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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