District of Columbia
Where things stand with WorldPride just 10 weeks until kickoff
Amid some criticism, D.C. retains event management company to assist
In a little-noticed development, the office of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in November arranged for a prominent local event planning company to help organize WorldPride D.C. 2025, which is expected to be the city’s and possibly the nation’s largest LGBTQ Pride celebration.
Dozens of WorldPride 2025 events, including an International LGBTQ March on Washington and Rally, an LGBTQ Human Rights Conference, a Music Festival and Global Dance Party, and multiple sporting events, are scheduled to take place in D.C. May 17-June 8.
Capital Pride Alliance, the organization that plans most of D.C.’s Pride celebrations, was awarded the WorldPride contract in 2022 by the international LGBTQ organization InterPride after an LGBTQ organization in Taiwan dropped out after winning the initial competition to host WorldPride 2025.
Mayor Bowser has since earmarked — and the D.C. Council has approved — $5 million in city funds to support the WorldPride celebration and events. Capital Pride Alliance Executive Director Ryan Bos told a D.C. Council hearing earlier this year that the WorldPride budget was set at $20 million, with most of the funding coming from private corporate donors.
At least two knowledgeable sources, who spoke on condition of not being identified, said the mayor’s office began looking for another entity to help organize WorldPride last fall when questions arose over Capital Pride Alliance’s ability to manage the budget, funding, and events associated with WorldPride. Another source said lower than expected yields from fundraising had prompted Capital Pride Alliance to cut the budget in half, a claim that Bos disputes and said was not credible.
“The budget, like any budget, is a guide,” Bos told the Blade. “And we budgeted between $15 million and $20 million, which included a lot of in-kind support as well,” he said. “And like we do every year for an organization like ours, which is event based, we do our best every year to come under budget.”
Bos added, “So, we are doing our best to save whenever we can and to ensure that we have a safe and successful WorldPride.”
It was around that time when Linder Global Events, a prominent minority and woman-owned D.C. event management company, was awarded a city contract to assume responsibility for several aspects of the WorldPride planning and organizing.
In a Nov. 21 statement sent to the D.C. Council, Bowser outlined the specific roles that Linder Global Events and Capital Pride Alliance would have under the city’s $5 million funding allocation for WorldPride.
The mayor’s statement says the Linder company would receive $1.4 million for “strategic partnership development, fundraising coordination, sponsorship fulfillment, financial oversight reporting, and management.” It says Capital Pride Alliance would receive $3.1 million for “event execution and community engagement” and an additional $500,000 for the issuance of “competitive grants for community supported events.”
Both Bowser and Nina Albert, the D.C. Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, told the Washington Blade at a Feb. 12 press conference on an unrelated subject that the decision to retain the Linder company to help organize WorldPride is something the city often does for this type of event. Albert said it was not brought about due to any problem with Capital Pride Alliance.
“Look, this is a big event. It requires coordination across a lot of different organizations,” she said. “Capital Pride is kind of the point for that event. It is very typical that we would bring on consultants to help,” she told the Blade. “So, this is very typical, and we’re very excited to host hopefully two million people to the District of Columbia.”
Anthony Hesselius, a spokesperson for Capital Pride Alliance, said it was the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs that selected the Linder company, which he said would oversee the city’s $5 million funding allocation for WorldPride.
“In addition, Linder is one of the many collaborators working with Capital Pride Alliance to make WorldPride a success,” Hesselius told the Blade.
Despite those assurances, others have expressed concern over Capital Pride Alliance’s management of WorldPride.
Zar, the founder and former creative director of Team Rayceen Productions, a local LGBTQ events group that is currently on hiatus, wrote an op-ed in the Blade critical of his interactions with Capital Pride during the planning of WorldPride. Among other things, he said Capital Pride was reluctant to share information and listen to suggestions for proposed WorldPride events.
“I know countless bits of miscellaneous information that cause me trepidation,” he wrote. “I have had contact with numerous people, including performers, leaders of organizations, and subcommittee members, and not once has anyone said anything that assuaged my concerns,” he added.
Another source who spoke on condition of anonymity said they met with Capital Pride officials several times in 2024 to propose WorldPride events, but Capital Pride failed to respond to subsequent calls and emails.
“My organization was prepared to work with Capital Pride on a series of events, but they stopped communicating with us months ago,” the source said. “This is something I have heard from multiple community leaders, activists, and bar owners, that Capital Pride is not engaged with the local community.”
Hope Giselle, a prominent D.C. trans activist, posted a highly critical video commentary on Instagram last month denouncing the WorldPride Music Festival lineup of Jennifer Lopez, Troye Sivan, and RuPaul for the lack of Black inclusion.
“Jennifer Lopez? That was the best y’all could do,” Giselle said in her video, asserting that Lopez can’t sing live and has limited appeal to LGBTQ audiences.
She also assailed the inclusion in the WorldPride Music Festival of the singer Grimes, who is the mother of three children of Elon Musk, the billionaire conservative Republican activist who President Trump appointed to head the newly created office to fire thousands of federal government workers.
“Grimes literally has children with Elon fucking Muskrat, the person that is making us all feel this fucking small, or at least attempted to make us feel this fucking small,” Giselle said in her video. “It is essential that Pride remains a protest for inclusivity, not an exclusionary event that upholds the status quo for a select few,” she wrote in a comment accompanying her video.
Bos, the Capital Pride Alliance executive director, points out that the WorldPride Music Festival, which will take place outdoors on the city’s RFK stadium grounds June 6-7, is being produced by an entertainment event promoter in partnership with Capital Pride Alliance. Bos notes that the promoter, who is identified on the WorldPride website as Jake Resnicow, is the one who selected the performers, including Grimes.
“Some events for WorldPride, like the free two-day Street Festival and Concert, are organized and curated by the Capital Pride Alliance and other events like the [WorldPride Music Festival and] Global Dance Party, the Anthem’s Grace Jones and Janelle Monáe show, the Lincoln Theater’s show with Bob The Drag Queen and Monet X Change, and others, are independently curated by partner producers,” Bos told the Blade in a statement.
“The Capital Pride Alliance remains committed to listening to the community and fostering inclusive and celebratory spaces for all,” he said. “WorldPride’s mission is to unite and uplift the LGBTQ+ community through music, art, and advocacy. We value our community’s diverse voices and look forward to an incredible celebration of Pride and resilience,” he said.
Yet another source familiar with WorldPride 2025 organizing, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not dispute Bos’s claims that WorldPride organizers were doing all they could to ensure a full diversity of events, including participation of African-American, Latino, transgender, and other members of the LGBTQ community.
However, the source indicated that WorldPride organizers, possibly due to the extensive work required to organize an event of WorldPride’s scale, initially fell short in robustly soliciting community collaboration. For example, community activists like Hope Giselle were not informed in advance that outside promoters hosting partner events (like the Music Festival at RFK) were responsible for selecting their performers. However, community members are beginning to feel more reassured due to new funding opportunities, programming announcements, and direct stakeholder engagement efforts, the source said.
According to the source, WorldPride organizers could have done more to inform the community that, overall, highly acclaimed African-American performers, including Janelle Monáe, were among those scheduled to perform at WorldPride marquee and partner events.
Bos also said in his statement to the Blade that Capital Pride Alliance was pleased to bring back the WorldPride Closing Ceremony and Concert to Pennsylvania Avenue, which is the site for the two-day WorldPride Street Festival and Concert.
The Closing Ceremony and Concert had initially been slated to take place on the National Mall. Bos told the Blade a higher cost for holding that event on the National Mall played a role in the decision to move it to Pennsylvania Avenue.
But Bos did not say whether the possibility that the Capital Pride application for a permit to hold that and several other events on the National Mall or in federal parks would be turned down was a factor in moving the closing event to Pennsylvania Avenue.
In response to a request from the Blade, a spokesperson for the U.S. National Park Service, which has jurisdiction over the National Mall and other federal parks in D.C., provided the Blade with a list of eight separate permit applications submitted by Capital Pride Alliance for use of federal parklands for WorldPride events.
Among the parks or spaces included in the applications in addition to the National Mall are Dupont Circle park, Thomas Circle, Franklin Park, Freedom Plaza, the Lincoln Memorial Parkway Beach volleyball courts, the Rock Creek Park Tennis Center and Stadium, West Potomac Park, and Anacostia Park.
The National Park Service spokesperson, Mike Litterst, didn’t respond to a question from the Blade about whether any of the multiple executive orders targeting LGBTQ issues and DEI by President Donald Trump might result in denial of the WorldPride permit applications.
“We continue to work with the organizers of WorldPride on the details of the event required to allow for issuing the final permits,” Litterst said in an email message. “We do not anticipate conflicts or overlap with any other proposed events,” he said.
Capital Pride Alliance on Feb. 17 issued a five-page press release announcing the launch of a new WorldPride 2025 website that it says includes, among other things, a list of all the WorldPride events, all of which are moving ahead as planned.
The updated website includes information about hotel availability for out-of-town visitors and announces that Cynthia Erivo will be one of the lead performers at the street festival and concert on Pennsylvania Avenue on June 7.
“With the full support of the mayor’s office, its office of LGBTQ Affairs, and additional financial backing from legacy sponsors, alongside a growing list of committed corporations, community businesses and individuals, WorldPride 2025 is expected to be the largest international event in Washington, D.C. this year,” the press release says.
“Three million attendees (inclusive of two million visitors and one million regional participants) are expected from May 17 through June 8, 2025, during which the Welcoming Concert featuring Shakira, the Capital Cup Sports Festival, D.C. Black Pride, an International March and Rally on Washington, and much more will take place,” it says. Visit worldpridedc.org for more information.
District of Columbia
Deon Jones speaks about D.C. Department of Corrections bias lawsuit settlement
Gay former corrections officer says harassment, discrimination began in 1993
Deon Jones says he is pleased with the outcome of his anti-gay bias lawsuit against the D.C. Department of Corrections that ended after five years on Feb. 5 with the D.C. government paying him $500,000 in a settlement payment.
The lawsuit, filed on his behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union of D.C. and the international law firm WilmerHale, charged that Jones, a Department of Corrections sergeant, had been subjected to years of discrimination, retaliation, and a hostile work environment because of his identity as a gay man in clear violation of the D.C. Human Rights Act.
A statement released by the ACLU at the time the settlement was announced says Jones, “faced years of verbal abuse and harassment, from co-workers and incarcerated people alike, including anti-gay slurs, threats, and degrading treatment.”
The statement adds, “The prolonged mistreatment took a severe toll on Jones’s mental health, and he experienced depression, post-traumatic-stress disorder, and 15 anxiety attacks in 2021 alone.:
Jones said the harassment and mistreatment he encountered began in 1993, one year after he first began work at the Department of Corrections and continued for more than 25 years under six D.C. mayors, including current Mayor Muriel Bowser, who he says did not respond to his repeated pleas for help.
Each of those mayors, including Bowser, have been outspoken supporters of the LGBTQ community, but Jones says they did not intervene to change what he calls the homophobic “culture” at the Department of Corrections.
The Department of Corrections, through the Office of the D.C. Attorney General, which represents city agencies against lawsuits, and the mayor’s office, have so far declined to comment on the lawsuit and the half million-dollar settlement the city offered to Jones, who accepted it.
Among other things, the settlement agreement states that Jones would be required to resign from his job at the Department of Corrections. It also declares that “neither the parties’ agreement nor the District government’s offer to settle the case shall in any way be construed as an admission by the District that it or any of its current or former employees, acted wrongfully with respect to plaintiff or any other person, or that plaintiff has any rights.”
Scott Michelman, the D.C. ACLU’s legal director said that type of disclaimer is typical for parties that agree to settle a lawsuit like this. He said the city’s action to pay Jones a half million-dollar settlement “speaks louder than words.”
With that as a backdrop, Jones reflected on the settlement and what he says was his tumultuous 30-year career as an employee at the D.C. Department of Corrections in a Feb. 9 interview with the Washington Blade.
He and Michelman pointed out that Jones was placed on paid administrative leave in April 2022, one year after his lawsuit was filed. Among his upcoming plans, Jones told the Blade, is to publish a podcast that, among other things, will highlight the hardship he faced at the Department of Corrections and advocate for LGBTQ rights.
BLADE: What are your thoughts on this lawsuit settlement which appears very much in your favor?
JONES: That’s great. I’m happy. I’m glad to resign. It’s been a long time coming. It was the worst time it’s ever been. And I have advocated for the community for many, many years. And not only standing up for my rights but for the rights for others in the LGBTQ community.
And I’m just tired now. And my podcast will start soon. And I will continue to advocate for the community.
BLADE: Can you tell a little about that and when it will begin?
JONES: Once in April, once everything is closed my podcast will be starting. And that’s Deon’s Chronicle and Reveal. Yes, my own podcast.
BLADE: Since we have reported your attorney saying you have been on administrative leave since March of 2022, some in the community might be interested in what you have been doing since that time. Did you get another job or were you just waiting for this case to be resolved?
JONES: I was waiting for this to be resolved. I couldn’t work. That would violate policy and procedures of the D.C. government. So, I could not get another job or anything else.
BLADE: You have said under administrative leave you were still getting paid. You were still able to live off of that?
JONES: Yes, I was able to. Yes, sir. I used to do a lot of overtime. As a zone lieutenant for many years, I have supervised over 250 officers. I’ve also supervised over 25,000 inmates in my 30 years.
BLADE: How many years have you been working for the Department of Corrections?
JONES: It’s 30 years all together. I started down at the Lorton facility. Six facilities — I’ve worked for past directors, deputy directors, internal affairs. I’ve done it all.
BLADE: Do you have any plans now other than doing the podcast?
JONES: Well, to just do my podcast and also to write my book and my memoir inside of the house of pain, the house of shame — what I’ve been through. When I start my podcast off it will be stories — Part 1 through Part 4. And I will go back to the Lorton days all the way up to now. When it first started was sexual harassment and discrimination back down at Lorton. And I mean this has just been the worst time around.
BLADE: So, did you first start your work at the Lorton Prison?
JONES: Yes, I was at the central facility, which was the program institution.
MICHELMAN: Just for context. You may remember this, but the Lorton facility was where D.C. incarcerated people were held. So, that was part of the D.C. Department of Corrections.
BLADE: Yes, and that was located in Lorton, Va., is that right?
JONES: Right.
BLADE: Didn’t that close and is the main incarceration facility is now in D.C. itself?
JONES: Yes. And that closed in 2001.
BLADE: I see. And is the main D.C. jail now at a site near the RFK Stadium site?
JONES: Yes, sir. And next-door is the correctional treatment facility as well.
BLADE: So, are you saying the harassment and other mistreatment against you began back when you were working at the Lorton facility?
JONES: At the Lorton central facility. And they used to flash me too. When I say flash me like the residents, the inmates were flashing. And they [the employees] were flashing.
BLADE: What do you mean by flashing?
JONES: They take their penis out and everything else. I mean the sexual harassment was terrible. And I came out then down there. And I continued to advocate for myself and to advocate for other people who I was told were being picked on as well.
BLADE: As best you can recall, where and what year did that happen?
JONES: That was back in 1993 in April of 1993.
BLADE: The mayor’s office has declined to comment on the settlement and payment the city is giving you. Yet they have always said they have a strong policy of nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people in D.C. government agencies. But do you think that was not carried out at the Department of Corrections?
JONES: That’s a blatant reason why — I had 13 anxiety attacks. It was so blatant. Can you imagine? On the airwaves or the walkie-talkies — everybody had a walkie talkie — the captains and the majors and everything. And you transmit it to the command center or something like that. When you finish someone gets on the air and calls you a sissy or a fag.
They received so many complaints, and I also sent the mayor so many emails and begging for help. And they ignored it. They didn’t address any complaints at all. So, that’s bull.
BLADE: But now after you filed your lawsuit and you received this settlement do you think there will be changes there to protect the rights of other LGBTQ employees?
JONES: I hope so, because I have been defending community rights. For many years I have been advocating for different things and different services. And I’ve seen the treatment. There are a lot of mistreatments towards the community over there. And I have taken a stance for a lot of people in the community and protecting their constitutional rights as well as mine.
BLADE: What advice might you have for what the Department of Corrections should do to correct the situation that led to your lawsuit?
JONES: Well, what my advice for the department is they need to go back over their training. And they need to enforce rules against any acts of discrimination, retaliation, or sexual harassment. They need to enforce that. They’re not enforcing that at all. They’re not doing it at all. And this time it was worse than ever, then I’ve ever seen it. That you would get on the walkie talkie and someone would call you a fag or a sissy or whatever else or do evil things and everything. They are not enforcing what they are preaching. They are not enforcing that.
BLADE: Is there any kind of concluding comment you may want to make?
JONES: Well, I hope that this litigation will be a wakeup call for the department. And also, that it will give someone else the motivation to stand up for their rights. I was blessed to have the ACLU and WilmerHale to protect my constitutional rights. So, I am just really happy. So, I’m hoping that others will stand up for their rights. Because a lot of people in the community that worked there, they were actually afraid. And I had some people who actually quit because of the pressure.
District of Columbia
U.S. Attorney’s Office drops hate crime charge in anti-gay assault
Case remains under investigation and ‘further charges’ could come
D.C. police announced on Feb. 9 that they had arrested two days earlier on Feb. 7 a Germantown, Md., man on a charge of simple assault with a hate crime designation after the man allegedly assaulted a gay man at 14th and Q Streets, N.W., while using “homophobic slurs.”
But D.C. Superior Court records show that prosecutors with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C., which prosecutes D.C. violent crime cases, charged the arrested man only with simple assault without a hate crime designation.
In response to a request by the Washington Blade for the reason why the hate crime designation was dropped, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office provided this response: “We continue to investigate this matter and make no mistake: should the evidence call for further charges, we will not hesitate to charge them.”
In a statement announcing the arrest in this case, D.C. police stated, “On Saturday, February 7, 2026, at approximately 7:45 p.m. the victim and suspect were in the 1500 block of 14th Street, Northwest. The suspect requested a ‘high five’ from the victim. The victim declined and continued walking,” the statement says.
“The suspect assaulted the victim and used homophobic slurs,” the police statement continues. “The suspect was apprehended by responding officers.”
It adds that 26-year-old Dean Edmundson of Germantown, Md. “was arrested and charged with Simple Assault (Hate/Bias).” The statement also adds, “A designation as a hate crime by MPD does not mean that prosecutors will prosecute it as a hate crime.”
Under D.C.’s Bias Related Crime Act of 1989, penalties for crimes motivated by prejudice against individuals based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, and homelessness can be enhanced by a court upon conviction by one and a half times greater than the penalty of the underlying crime.
Prosecutors in the past both in D.C. and other states have said they sometimes decide not to include a hate crime designation in assault cases if they don’t think the evidence is sufficient to obtain a conviction by a jury. In some instances, prosecutors have said they were concerned that a skeptical jury might decide to find a defendant not guilty of the underlying assault charge if they did not believe a motive of hate was involved.
A more detailed arrest affidavit filed by D.C. police in Superior Court appears to support the charge of a hate crime designation.
“The victim stated that they refused to High-Five Defendant Edmondson, which, upon that happening, Defendant Edmondson started walking behind both the victim and witness, calling the victim, “bald, ugly, and gay,” the arrest affidavit states.
“The victim stated that upon being called that, Defendant Edmundson pushed the victim with both hands, shoving them, causing the victim to feel the force of the push,” the affidavit continues. “The victim stated that they felt offended and that they were also gay,” it says.
District of Columbia
Capital Pride wins anti-stalking order against local activist
Darren Pasha claims action is linked to his criticism of Pride organizers
A D.C. Superior Court judge on Feb. 6 partially approved an anti-stalking order against a local LGBTQ activist requested last October by the Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C.-based LGBTQ group that organizes the city’s annual Pride events.
The ruling by Judge Robert D. Okun requires Darren Pasha to stay at least 100 feet away from Capital Pride’s staff, board members, and volunteers until the time of a follow up court hearing he scheduled for April 17.
In his ruling at the Feb. 6 hearing, which was virtual rather than held in-person at the courthouse, Okun said he had changed the distance that Capital Pride had requested for the stay-away, anti-stalking order from 200 yards to 100 feet. The court records show that the judge also denied a motion filed earlier by Pasha, who did not attend the hearing, to “quash” the Capital Pride civil case against him.
Pasha told the Washington Blade he suffered an injury and damaged his mobile phone by falling off his scooter on the city’s snow-covered streets that prevented him from calling in to join the Feb. 6 court hearing.
In his own court filings without retaining an attorney, Pasha has strongly denied the stalking related allegations against him by Capital Pride, saying “no credible or admissible evidence has been provided” to show he engaged in any wrongdoing.
The Capital Pride complaint initially filed in court on Oct. 27, 2025, includes an 18-page legal brief outlining its allegations against Pasha and an additional 167-page addendum of “supporting exhibits” that includes multiple statements by witnesses whose names are blacked out.
“Over the past year, Defendant Darren Pasha (“DSP”) has engaged in a sustained, and escalating course of conduct directed at CPA, including repeated and unwanted contact, harassment, intimidation, threats, manipulation, and coercive behavior targeting CPA staff, board members, volunteers, and affiliates,” the Capital Pride complaint states.
In his initial 16-page response to the complaint, Pasha says the Capital Pride complaint appears to be a form of retaliation against him for a dispute he has had with the organization and its then president, Ashley Smith, last year.
“It is evident that the document is replete with false, misleading, and unsubstantiated assertions,” he said of the complaint.
Smith, who has since resigned from his role as board president, did not respond to a request by the Blade for comment at the time the Capital Pride court complaint was filed against Pasha.
Capital Pride Executive Director Ryan Bos and the attorney representing the group in its legal action against Pasha, Nick Harrison, did not immediately respond to a Blade request for comment on the judge’s Feb. 6 ruling.
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