District of Columbia
Many LGBTQ residents escaping D.C. for inauguration weekend
Some fear queer spaces could be targeted by MAGA crowd
Donald Trump will be sworn in on the steps of the U.S. Capitol as the 47th president on Monday, becoming the second person in history to ever return to the Oval Office after losing an election. As fencing and roadblocks begin to pop up in preparation for a weekend of Trump supporters gallivanting on the National Mall and across the capital, many LGBTQ people in Washington have made plans to leave the District.
Nick Gomez, a 27-year-old music director for iHeartRadio and host of PRIDE Radio told the Washington Blade he will leave the city for northern Maryland with a group of kickball team members. Gomez explained that this weekend being both a federal holiday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) and a weekend when he didn’t want to remain in Washington, it made sense to join some friends on a trip.
“I thought that it was a small group, but it’s actually a very large group of us looking at the group chat now,” Gomez said. “We’re getting a little cabin out in northern Maryland.” He said 27 members of his LGBTQ Stonewall Kickball team are planning to ride out the inauguration away from Trump supporters and MAGA hats.
“Normally a little kickball team cabin weekend happens every year, but we did coordinate it to happen on inauguration weekend this year — decidedly after Nov. 5 is when we booked the Airbnb,” he said.
Gomez’s choice to leave Washington was not a snap judgment though. For a while he contemplated what to do and if he should leave the city at all.
“I’ve thought about this a lot, actually,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘What is it going to be like to live in this city while the administration is active outside of just inauguration weekend?’ There was a part of me that’s like, ‘I don’t need to be caught up in all that. I know that that’s probably not going to be good for me. And it very well could turn into a fucking hellscape out here.’ But there was another part of me that’s like, ‘Well, why am I going to leave? Because this is my city. I’m the one who lives here!’ And that kind of went into thinking about the inauguration weekend.”
Gomez understood this would not be like any previous inauguration, given the inflammatory president-elect and his largely anti-LGBTQ followers.
“The difference about inauguration weekend is that this inauguration is happening on the 20th, but there’s also that rally happening on the 19th,” he said. “Anything that we can get caught up in on the 19th is just simply not going to be beneficial for queer people in the city, or the city itself.”
The twice-impeached president-elect is planning to hold a “victory rally” for 20,000 supporters the day before he is sworn in. This will mark the first time Trump will speak to a crowd in Washington since Jan. 6, 2021, when groups of his supporters stormed the Capitol in hopes of overturning the fair election of Joe Biden. Trump’s fans, and their inclination to venture toward violent behavior, Gomez explains, is a large reason for why he chose to leave Washington for the weekend.
“There are going to be so many people from out of town here, people from around the country here whose only objective is to support this man. We know what that looks like when people support this man in a physical sense. If they’re going to do that for two days, I don’t need to be here for that. I also don’t need to validate their presence by welcoming them to my city.”
He understands that some LGBTQ community members may feel that is the exact reason to stay in Washington.
“Maybe there are some differing opinions on that,” Gomez added. “Maybe people think, ‘You know what, I’m going to sit here and stand my ground’ and like, ‘This is my city no matter what.’ I just think that there is a smarter way to stand my ground in my city than subjecting myself to whatever chaos is going to be here on those two days.”
“It’s more of a refusal to leave on my part,” said Luke Stowell, 22, the queer assistant director of music at the Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church who is hunkering down in the District this weekend. “I live here. I pay rent here. I’m not going anywhere, just because 650,000 Republicans are coming. This is my home.”
Stowell explained that he is on the side of staying in Washington for the inauguration, if nothing else to be a voice of resistance against the Trump regime.
“I almost wish that there wasn’t such a desire for exodus,” they added. “I wish that there were a little bit more of a ‘Hey, like, No, we’re actually going to stand our ground.’ I appreciate the defiance, but I see it more as a defense of this territory. It’s obviously, as we know, a hugely liberal territory.”
Stowell has debated shifting his daily routine ahead of Sunday’s MAGA rally to avoid the Gallery-Place/Capital One Arena area.
“They’re saying that there’s a big rally before the inauguration down at Capital One Arena, and that’s actually where my Planet Fitness is,” they said. “I’m very interested to see if I try to go to the gym on Sunday, will it even be open? Will it be overrun with MAGgots? Otherwise on Monday, I have choir. I have things to do on Monday. My life doesn’t really stop just because the inauguration is happening. Some people don’t even have time off for the MLK Day holiday. It seems so crazy that those are on the same day, but yeah, I’ll be around.”
Sam Parker, a 30-year-old managing strategist at a political consulting firm, chose to use this weekend to escape from the city and to get closer to his partner after experiencing the first Trump inauguration from a very close distance.
“My boyfriend and I are going to Philly for the weekend, all the way until Tuesday to avoid the inauguration, and to get out for the three-day weekend,” Parker said. “It’s definitely largely predicated on the fact that I lived in Foggy Bottom the last time he was inaugurated.”
Parker has since moved away from any of the neighborhoods that will be fully locked down during the inauguration but would rather just avoid any repeated feeling of being locked down as he was eight years ago.
“It was entirely in the shutdown zone — there were armored cars on the street. It was inescapable. My current neighborhood is probably a little less… omnipresent. … But I’ve kind of gotten over the idea that there’s some kind of ‘noble aim’ being witness to all this stuff, and that it’s kind of better for my mental health to just get out of town. Also, politics aside, it feels like the town gets kind of locked down for an inauguration. It is kind of nice to use some Amtrak points and go somewhere else. Have a less stressful weekend.”
Justin Westley, a 28-year-old fundraising professional for an environmental NGO, is also using this weekend as an opportunity to grow closer to their boyfriend, Matt. Matt, who works for the federal government, requested anonymity due to concerns about potential repercussions for speaking out against the incoming administration, but wholeheartedly agreed about wanting to leave the city ahead of Trump’s arrival.
“We’re going to Boston this weekend,” Westley said. “We’re visiting Matt’s sister, who lives up there. We’re going to stay and visit for a while, and this just seemed like a good opportunity. It’s very practical, because we were wanting to see Matt’s sister anyway. … I know most of our friends are either doing cabin trips or small weekend getaways anyway. We probably would have left regardless. I do think going to Massachusetts, a very blue state, and Boston, a very blue city, will be nice to not have to worry at all about interacting with those people [Trump supporters] on the day-to-day.”
“Yeah,” Matt agreed. “Visiting a city that has voted primarily blue the past several elections offers a political comfort. But also, there’s a fun aspect of exploring a new city. Justin’s never been there. And then there’s comfort there — visiting a family member. That’s also just kind of like a safety net.”
Matt added that he has already seen law enforcement begin taking precautions in the District ahead of Monday’s events, solidifying the choice to leave ahead of whatever the weekend holds.
“I actually live pretty close to the White House, in the general Logan Circle area, and they’ve been testing drones,” Matt said. “I remember seeing the news articles that they’re going to be testing them throughout the week, leading up to the inauguration. I haven’t been down near the actual mall, but the traffic patterns have already changed, just walking around the neighborhood. And the transportation agency has released what streets are going to be closed and navigating the area around my apartment is just going to be a nightmare.”
This caused Westley to reflect on where he, and the city, was four years ago.
“I’ve just been thinking back to Jan. 6 — the disrespect, the terrorism, the white supremacy, but also just the disrespect toward the people who live here,” Westley said. “Four years later, after all of that, these people are going to be coming back under the presumption of ‘Welcome to the city!’ For the first Trump administration, I lived in Nashville and in Pittsburgh. Those are both red and like purple states, respectively. The cities themselves truly did feel like… not being in a bubble, but like, a true insulated community where I wasn’t on edge about seeing Trump supporters — like MAGAs in the streets necessarily…There is just going to be a lot more Trump supporters [in Washington], and that just makes me feel a lot less secure.”
Despite feeling less secure this time around, Westley echoed Parker’s earlier sentiment on the importance of prioritizing his mental health while navigating this weekend, and the next four years.
“While I can’t control being around staffers in the streets for the next four years, I can control when I’m around the sort of enthusiastic supporter that would be coming to the inauguration,” Westley said. “Removing myself from the situation felt like the healthiest thing for me, especially thinking about the next four years and for the energy that I’ll have to devote to protecting the people I love, the people close to me, as well as the community more broadly. I want to make sure that I’m starting that from a place of safety and resilience and not fear.”
Stephen Hayes, 37, a non-profit fundraising professional, will use the long holiday weekend to celebrate his wedding anniversary and avoid unnecessary political conflict with people who may not support him and his husband.
“I had already planned on going out of town this weekend,” Hayes told the Blade. “It’s my husband and my 11th wedding anniversary. We got married in New York and we return every year for our anniversary. Our anniversary happens to fall in the middle of the week, so we’re going the weekend prior.”
Hayes initially was more hopeful the country would go in a different direction than a second Trump presidency and kept that in mind when originally planning his anniversary weekend.
“I had originally planned to return in time for the inauguration, because I was hopefully optimistic that things would go the other way. But once we learned that they didn’t go the way that I’d like, I changed my plans to extend my stay in New York through the inauguration and return the following day, hopefully avoiding most of the people who will be here in town for the event.”
This trip, Hayes recalls, seems to be very similar to his holiday weekend during Trump’s first inauguration two terms ago.
“It’s kind of funny because eight years ago I was in New York during some of the first protests [against Trump] with the ‘pussy hat/pink hat’ protests that took place in New York,” he said. “I wasn’t planning to be there during the inauguration, and I wasn’t yet a D.C. resident, but now it will be interesting to be in New York City again for the inauguration.”
“It feels like there’s a lot of unknown right now,” Hayes added. “Personally, I kind of have my guard up. The people coming to town might not be as friendly as your average visitor so I would just be hyper vigilant. Be aware of what’s going on around you. I want to say that queer spaces are safe spaces, but they might be a targeted place. I don’t think that’s going to happen, but the pessimist in me says be prepared.”
“It is super easy to feel really helpless and we’re all allowed to feel helpless, but eventually something has to come of that helplessness,” Gomez added. “I have no doubt that the queer community in this city will do that, and something will come out of it. But I think if there’s anything that I would want to share just from my personal experience over the last however many weeks, it’s that helplessness is OK, and it will not last forever. There’s an entire city of people around you that are there to lean on.”
Trump’s inauguration happens Monday, Jan. 20 at noon on the Capitol steps. If you’re staying in town, Metro has released information regarding the change in transportation schedules ahead of the three-day weekend.
“Metro is prepared to move customers for Inauguration Day with additional train service and earlier hours,” WAMATA announced. “Per the request of the United States Secret Service and the United States Capitol Police, Metrorail will open at 4 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 20 to accommodate the crowds. Five stations will be closed, and trains will bypass these stations for security reasons from Sunday, Jan. 19 at 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 21: McPherson Square (Blue, Orange, Silver lines), Federal Triangle (Blue, Orange, Silver lines), Smithsonian (Blue, Orange, Silver lines), Mt. Vernon Sq.-Convention Center (Green, Yellow lines), Archives-Navy Memorial (Green, Yellow lines).”
For more information on public transportation in Washington ahead of the holiday weekend, visit inauguration.dc.gov/ or wmata.com/service/inauguration-2025.
District of Columbia
D.C. police investigating threat of shooting at WorldPride festival
Police chief says weekend was ‘success without incident’
D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a June 9 press conference that police investigators are looking for a man who reportedly threatened to “shoot up” the WordPride festival on Sunday, June 8, inside the fence-enclosed festival grounds.
Smith, who joined D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser at the press conference to discuss public safety issues, said aside from the shooting threat, WorldPride events took place “without an incident’ and called WorldPride 2025 D.C. a success.
“I think last evening at the festival footprint there was an individual inside the festival who said there was an individual who was there and that they were going to shoot up the place in some terminology they used,” Smith told news media reporters.
“As you know, the event went off without incident,” she said. “We did have appropriate resources down there to address it. We did put out a photo of the individual – white male. That’s all we have right now. But our team is working very diligently to find out who that individual is.”
Smith added that D.C. police made 15 arrests during the WorldPride weekend with at least 23 violent crimes that occurred across the city but which she said were not related to WorldPride.
“There was a lot going on,” she said. “But I’m so grateful we were able to have a WorldPride 2025 in this city that was very successful.”
In response to reporters’ questions, Bowser said she regretted that an incident of violence took place in Dupont Circle Park shortly after she persuaded the U.S. Park Service to reverse its earlier decision to close Dupont Circle Park during WorldPride weekend.
The mayor was referring to an incident early Saturday evening, June 7, in which two juveniles were stabbed inside the park following a fight, according to D.C. police. Police said the injuries were nonfatal.
Bowser noted that she agreed with community activists and nearby residents that Dupont Circle Park, which has been associated with LGBTQ events for many years, should not be closed during WorldPride.
Park Service officials have said their reason for closing the park was that acts of vandalism and violence had occurred there during past LGBTQ Pride weekends, even though LGBTQ Pride organizers have said the vandalism and violent acts were not associated with Pride events.
“I think if I were standing here this morning and we hadn’t opened up the park you would be asking me were there any requests for not pushing hard to have a D.C. park opened that’s important to the LGBT community during Pride,” Bowser told reporters.
“So, any time that there is harm to someone, and our responsibility, we regard it as our number one responsibility to keep the city safe and keep from harm’s way, certainly I have some regrets,” she said. “But I know I was working very hard to balance what our community was calling for with our preparations. And that was the decision I made,” she said, referring to her call to reopen Dupont Circle Park.
Bowser also noted that the National Park Service would not likely have agreed to reverse its decision to reopen Dupont Circle Park if an event had not been planned to take place there over the WorldPride weekend.
She was referring to a Saturday, June 7, D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation “DISCO” party in Dupont Circle Park, which took place after the decision to reopen the park.
“Step Outside, Feel The Beat, And Shine With Pride,” a flyer announcing the event states.
District of Columbia
WorldPride wraps up after epic weekend of events
Historic LGBTQ celebration brings color, music, activism to nation’s capital
After more than two years of preparation, thousands of volunteers, countless LGBTQ community members and allies, queer celebrities, and hundreds of events across the District, WorldPride in Washington has come to a close.
“It has been an extremely powerful three weeks,” Ryan Bos, executive director of the Capital Pride Alliance, told the Blade on Sunday at the International March on Washington for Freedom. “This weekend has been well above expectations in relation to the energy and the crowds.”
WorldPride celebrations were set to kick off on May 31 with Shakira’s “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour,” but following reports of stage issues, the Colombian superstar canceled her D.C. show — and her Boston stop the day prior.
The festivities got into full swing on June 4 with the 2025 Human Rights Conference. Held at the J.W. Marriott, the three-day gathering brought together more than 800 attendees, including Jessica Stern, Spanish Sen. Carla Antonelli, Peruvian Congresswoman Susel Paredes, and Mariann Edgar Budde of the Washington National Cathedral.
Following the conference, Capital Pride hosted the annual Capital Pride Honors and Gala, recognizing outstanding figures in LGBTQ advocacy. Honorees included Cathy Renna, Jerry St. Louis, Ernest Hopkins, Lamar Braithwaite, Rev. Dr. Donna Claycomb Sokol, Kriston Pumphrey, Gia Martinez, Kraig Williams, and SMYAL.
As the week went on, the tone shifted from formal to festive. Venues across the city filled with partygoers draped in glitter and rainbows, dancing and celebrating love in all forms. From the 17th Street Block Party and Full Bloom celebration to Kinetic’s dance events and the Pride on the Pier boat parade and fireworks (presented by the Washington Blade), nearly every corner of D.C. turned into a dancefloor. The Wharf was transformed into a Pride dance party on both Friday and Saturday nights for the Blade’s annual Pride on the Pier and culminated in the city’s only Pride fireworks display.
The annual Pride Parade was a standout. The nearly six-hour-long march drew hundreds of thousands to 14th Street, stretching toward the Capitol. A 1,000-foot rainbow flag led the way as parade grand marshals Renée Rapp and Laverne Cox waved to cheering crowds. Confetti, beads, condoms, and joy poured from elaborate floats.
The parade fed into the WorldPride Street Festival and Concert, which for the first time spanned two days. The festival featured hundreds of booths — from queer merch and leather vendors to nonprofit fundraisers — and drew thousands of LGBTQ attendees under sunny skies.
Evenings wrapped with free concerts headlined by LGBTQ talent and allies, including Cynthia Erivo and Doechii. Other crowd favorites included Khalid , David Archuleta, and Kristine W.
At the RFK Stadium grounds, the WorldPride Music Festival drew thousands for powerhouse performances by Troye Sivan, RuPaul, Kim Petras, and Renée Rapp. Under glowing rainbow lights, fans danced and sang through the night.
Despite security concerns, no major issues were reported, though a few minor incidents occurred.
One of the biggest pre-event concerns was safety for LGBTQ attendees amid rising anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and anti-trans policies from the Trump administration. Multiple countries issued travel warnings for trans and gender-nonconforming individuals visiting the U.S., but turnout — including trans folks and their allies — remained strong and visible throughout.
Another flashpoint was the temporary closure of Dupont Circle, a cornerstone of D.C.’s — and the nation’s — LGBTQ rights movement. The U.S. Park Service initially closed the park, citing the need to “secure the park, deter potential violence, reduce the risk of destructive acts and decrease the need for extensive law enforcement presence” — despite the MPD chief’s request to keep it open. Strong public backlash led to a reversal, and soon the park was full of rainbow-clad LGBTQ people celebrating freely.
On Saturday night following the parade, two juveniles were stabbed in Dupont Circle. However, MPD later confirmed the incident was unrelated to WorldPride celebrations.
The weekend ended with the International Rally and March on Washington for Freedom. Hundreds of LGBTQ people and allies gathered at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to hear prominent activists speak on why Pride is still essential in 2025. Speakers called out rising hate and violence — and named Trump directly. As rain began to fall, the crowd only grew, marching from the Memorial to the Capitol, signs raised high, ending WorldPride as the first Pride began — as a protest.
District of Columbia
Two juveniles stabbed in Dupont Circle Park hours after U.S. Park Service reopens it
Early police reports don’t indicate connection to nearby WorldPride events
D.C. police are investigating a stabbing incident inside Dupont Circle Park early Saturday evening, June 7, in which two juvenile males were injured about 12 hours after U.S. Park Service workers removed a fence they installed closing the park.
Park Service officials said they initially decided to close Dupont Circle Park during the concluding weekend of WorldPride 2025 D.C. out of concern over possible destruction of property and violence. They cited incidents of vandalism and violent acts that occurred in the park during previous Capital Pride weekends over the past several years.
Capital Pride Alliance officials have said the destruction of property and reported acts of violence were not associated with any Pride events.
Capital Pride Alliance organizes most of D.C.’s annual LGBTQ Pride events and is the lead organizer of WorldPride 2025.
Around 5 a.m. on Saturday, June 7, Park Service workers began removing the fencing they had put up one day earlier to close Dupont Circle Park and reopened the park.
A short time later on Saturday the National Park Service and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser released a joint statement saying it was decided that the park should be reopened and the fence taken down following strong objections to the closing by nearby community leaders, including at least two gay Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners.
“We are pleased that the mayor’s office and the National Park Service could work together overnight on a solution that protects the historic features of this park while also ensuring the safety of all who enjoy it,” the statement says. “We want this weekend to be a safe and fun celebration in our nation’s capital – and one that includes one of the best parks and community spaces in our city, Dupont Circle,” it says.
In response to a request from the Washington Blade for information about the stabbing incident, a D.C. police spokesperson said a more detailed incident report had not yet been completed but released this statement:
“At 7:02 p.m. a stabbing occurred in Dupont Circle Park during a fight between groups of juveniles. Two juvenile males were transported to area hospitals conscious and breathing.”
The spokesperson, Public Affairs Specialist Freddie Talbert, included in his statement information about an unrelated shooting that occurred a short time later just outside Dupont Circle Park.
“At 7:52 p.m., after MPD officers cleared Dupont Circle Park, a shooting occurred in the 1300 block of 19th Street, N.W. immediately south of the circle. One adult male was transported conscious and breathing with a gunshot wound to the foot.”
No further information was provided, and Talbert didn’t immediately respond to a follow-up question from the Blade asking if police investigators knew whether the victims and perpetrators in the two incidents were in any way involved with WorldPride events.
At the time of the stabbing and shooting the WorldPride parade was nearing its end, with the last parade contingents traveling several blocks away from Dupont Circle on 14th Street from T Street to Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. The first day of the two-day WorldPride Festival was also still taking place on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. from 9th Street to 3rd Street, N.W.
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PHOTOS: Capital Pride Honors
