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Chris Frederick steps down as Exec Director of NYC Pride

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Chris Frederick (Photo courtesy of Frederick)

Chris Frederick, the Executive Director of NYC Pride, has stepped down from his post to accept a position with Out Leadership.

Out Leadership, the only business organization working globally to promote LGBT+ equality, has hired Frederick as their new Global Head of Events. According to Advertising Industry News Wire, he is the first of 5 strategic hires the organization has made.

Frederick spent eight years as Executive Director of NYC Pride, building it from a relatively modest metropolitan event to this year’s massive World Pride celebration over the course of his tenure.

In the official release from Out Leadership, he says:

“Hi All,

10 years ago I set out to remake the Pride experience in New York City. As New York was the epicenter of the gay rights movement, it deserved a world-class experience that could inspire generations, amplify the voices of the less fortunate, and pay homage to our remarkable history. It was so incredibly important to create something that people from around the world could experience and take back to emulate in areas that lack basic LGBTQ+ rights.
 
When I started with the organization our annual budget hovered between $800 – $900k and in 2019 we reached an operating budget of $13 million dollars. We were able to grow our grants given to other small LGBTQ nonprofits to over $300,000 annually. We were able to grow Dance on the Pier, now Pride Island, into a world-class event with artists like Madonna, Cher, Ariana Grande, Kylie Minogue, Lizzo, and more. We increased our programs from five events in 2009 to 25+ events in 2019. We successfully pulled off the largest LGBTQ event in history and the first WorldPride in the United States with over 5 million in attendance.
 
A lot can change over a decade. The political landscape is vastly different. Our community’s needs have evolved. The Pride experience around the globe has grown tremendously. However, I’m ready for the next chapter in my career. As a result, I will be stepping down from my role as Executive Director of NYC Pride. I’ve accepted an exciting new role as the Managing Director of Global Events for Out Leadership and my last day will be Friday, December 6th.
 
Out Leadership is the preeminent global business network driving LGBTQ advocacy and leadership development within the workplace. They do this by creating global events that help like-minded leaders convene, develop diverse talent, advocate for issues affecting LGBTQ professionals, and develop research and data driven content for businesses to provide a more meaningful understanding of our community.
 
As I wrap up these last ten years at NYC Pride, I want to thank my husband, family, friends and all of you for your support over the years. Thank you to all of the staff for being rockstars and your tireless work every single year. Thank you to the Executive Board for believing in my vision. The true partnership and friendship I found in our long running Co-Chairs, Maryanne and David, was something I’ll never forget. Of course, thank you to the volunteers for helping to make Pride simply remarkable. We couldn’t have become what we’ve become without you. 
 
To say this job was a dream job was an understatement yet I’m excited for this next chapter. A new dream job awaits with new challenges, reimagined goals, and a fresh outlook on how to move our community forward. Thank you to everyone for coming along with me on this incredible journey and I hope you join me in this new opportunity where we will be impacting LGBTQ rights globally.”

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PHOTOS: Hagerstown Pride

LGBTQ community celebration held at Doubs Woods Park

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Chasity Vain performs at Hagerstown Pride 2025. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The 13th annual Hagerstown Pride Festival was held at Doubs Woods Park in Hagerstown, Md. on Saturday, June 21.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)

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Theater

‘Hunter S. Thompson’ an unlikely but rewarding choice for musical theater

‘Speaks volumes about how sad things land on our country’

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George Salazar in ‘The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical.’

‘The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical’
Through July 13
Signature Theatre
4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington, Va.
$47 to $98
Sigtheatre.org

The raucous world of the counterculture journalist may not seem the obvious choice for musical theater, but the positive buzz surrounding Signature Theatre’s production of Joe Iconis’s “The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical” suggests otherwise. 

As the titular, drug addled and gun-toting writer, Eric William Morris memorably moves toward his character’s suicide in 2005 at 67. He’s accompanied by an ensemble cast playing multiple roles including out actor George Salazar as Thompson’s sidekick Oscar “Zeta” Acosta, a bigger than life Mexican American attorney, author, and activist in the Chicano Movement who follows closely behind. 

Salazar performs a show-stopping number — “The Song of the Brown Buffalo,” a rowdy and unforgettable musical dive into a man’s psyche. 

“Playing the part of Oscar, I’m living my Dom daddy activist dreams. For years, I was cast as the best friend with a heart of gold. Quite differently, here, I’m tasked with embodying all the toxic masculinity of the late ‘60s, and a rampant homophobia, almost folded into the culture.”

He continues, “My sexuality aside, I like to think that Oscar would be thrilled by my interpretation of him in that song. 

“Our upbringings are similar. I’m mixed race – Filipino and Ecuadorian and we grew up similarly,” says Salazar, 39. “He didn’t fit in as white or Mexican American, and fell somewhere in the middle. Playing Oscar [who also at 39 in 1974 forever disappeared in Mexico], I pulled out a lot of experience about having to code switch before finally finding myself and being confident just doing my own thing.

“As we meet Oscar in the show we find exactly where’s he’s at. Take me or leave me, I couldn’t care less.”

In 2011, just three years after earning his BFA in musical theater from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Salazar fortuitously met Iconis at a bar in New York. The pair became fast friends and collaborators: “This is our third production,” says George. “So, when Joe comes to me with an idea, there hasn’t been a moment that I don’t trust him.”

In “Be More Chill,” one of Iconis’s earlier works, Salazar originated the role of Michael Mell, a part that he counts as one of the greatest joys of artistic life.

With the character, a loyal and caring friend who isn’t explicitly queer but appeals to queer audiences, Salazar developed a fervent following. And for an actor who didn’t come out to his father until he was 30, being in a place to support the community, especially younger queer people, has proved incredibly special. 

“When you hear Hunter and Oscar, you might think ‘dude musical,’ but I encourage all people to come see it.” Salazar continues, “Queer audiences should give the show a shot. As a musical, it’s entertaining, funny, serious, affecting, and beautiful. As a gay man stepping into this show, it’s so hetero and I wasn’t sure what to do. So, I took it upon myself that any of the multiple characters I play outside of Oscar, were going to be queer.

Queer friends have seen it and love it, says Salazar. His friend, Tony Award-winning director Sam Pinkleton (“Oh, Mary!”) saw Hunter S. Thompson at the La Jolla Playhouse during its run in California, and said it was the best musical he’d seen in a very long time. 

“Since the work’s inception almost 10 years ago, I was the first Oscar to read the script. In the interim, the characters’ relationships have grown but otherwise there have been no major changes. Still, it feels more impactful in different ways: It’s exciting to come here to do the show especially since Hunter S. Thompson was very political.”

Salazar, who lives in Los Angeles with his partner, a criminal justice reporter for The Guardian, is enjoying his time here in D.C. “In a time when there are so many bans – books, drag queens, and travel — all I see is division. This is an escape from that.”  

He describes the Hunter Thompson musical as Iconis’s masterpiece, adding that it’s the performance that he’s most proud of to date and that feels there a lot of maturity in the work. 

“In the play, Thompson talks to Nixon about being a crook and a liar,” says Salazar. “The work speaks volumes about how sad things land on our country: We seem to take them one step forward and two steps back; the performance is almost art as protest.”

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PHOTOS: Goodwin Living Pride Parade

Senior living and healthcare organization holds fifth annual march at Falls Church campus

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Goodwin Living Pride March 2025. (Photo courtesy of Goodwin Living)

The senior living and healthcare organization Goodwin Living held its fifth annual Pride Parade around its Bailey’s Crossroads campus in Falls Church, Va. with residents, friends and supporters on Thursday, June 12.

(Photos courtesy of Goodwin Living)

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