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.