District of Columbia
Drag artists lead protest march to Kennedy Center
Queens and kings denounce Trump administration policies
Local drag artists and their supporters gathered for a march from Washington Circle to the Kennedy Center on Saturday to protest the Trump-Vance administration’s anti-transgender policies and the decisions made by the President Donald Trump-appointed Kennedy Center board of trustees.
The March for Drag began with a rally at Washington Circle near George Washington University.
One of the organizers of the March for Drag was drag king Lord Henry. The local performer addressed the gathered activists at Washington Circle.
“We demand that the Kennedy Center Board reinstate queer programming, including but not limited to drag-oriented workshops and shows and any other equity and DEI initiatives at the Kennedy Center,” Lord Henry said. “We want to force Congress to drop the multiple attempts at criminalizing gender non-conformity, including Trump’s executive order conflating sex and gender and the attack on drag artists through budget amendments, denying funds to organizations supporting and protecting this queer art form.”
“We care deeply about D.C. home rule,” Lord Henry concluded. “If home rule goes away, drag goes away in D.C.”
Other speakers at the event included the drag performers Crystal Edge, Indiana Bones, Cake Pop!, Tara Hoot, Mari Con Carne, Blaq Dinamyte, Mx.Noir, and Ricky Rosé.
“Drag is not just an invaluable form of self expression, but is a means of self discovery,” drag artist Brooke N Hymen told the crowd. “And not only are our livelihoods and artistry as drag artists under attack by the current administration, but the very existence of trans people as well.”
Brooke N Hymen, who identified himself as a trans man to the gathered protesters, continued discussing the effect of Trump’s policies on trans people.
“Beyond the executive orders meant to erase trans people from public life, Trump and his cronies want to define living in a trans body and expressing yourself in a way that aligns with your gender identity as ‘doing drag,'” Brooke N Hymen continued. “So, by attacking drag and attempts to outlaw drag on local and national levels, Trump is simultaneously attempting to outlaw trans people’s very existence.”
Sister Sybil of the D.C. Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence was slated to give a non-religious benediction before the march.
“This evening as we walk down the streets of our capital city, we are walking in the footsteps of our queer ancestors who fought tooth and nail for every right that we have ever attained,” Sister Sybil said.
“And now, one of our oldest and most sacred art forms, the art of drag, is again under attack,” Sister Sybil continued. “Our queer culture is now on the chopping block. And the only political party with any positioning to do anything about it has abandoned us: The Democratic Party.”
“But we have been here before,” Sister Sybil said. “Our culture and our community has never known a time without governmental targeting and neglect based on who we love, how we look, artistic expression, or even who we know ourselves to be, regardless of our birth certificate.”
“We must reclaim our community wisdom,” Sister Sybil told the crowd. “Our queer ancestors gave us tools to protest the indignities of heteronormative oppression. They gave us art, dance, disco, ballroom. They gave us drag as we know it. Most importantly, they gave us a love for our queer culture and a pride for being who we are. They loved and supported each other. They acted up. They organized, marched, lobbied, and tonight, after we are done marching, we must continue to do those things.”
Drag artist Mari Con Carne spoke at the rally in Washington Circle before the march. The local performer said, “As our queer ancestors have shouted out before, our community has always been here, we have always been queer, but they have yet to get used to it.”
“It is time we stop asking for their approval for our existence and it’s time we stop looking at ourselves as something to get used to,” Mari Con Carne continued.
“Our ancestors have always had to fight against a government that actively tries to erase us,” Mari Con Carne said to the gathered activists. “Think of the Stonewall riots, the AIDS epidemic protests and the queer liberation movement. Now it’s time to look up to them and see the fight for queer acknowledgment and acceptance only stopped because we wanted the system to get used to us.”
“It is now time for us to take our queer power and fight back,” Mari Con Carne concluded. “It is now time to defend our trans siblings and is now time that we stop wanting to get used to and begin fighting for acknowledgment and acceptance.”
The activists then marched down New Hampshire Avenue, N.W., chanting slogans and waving flags along the way. There was no police escort or presence in the march, yet activists were met with a small line of Kennedy Center security officers when they arrived near the front of the building.
The crowd stopped on the access road in front of the Kennedy Center and a second set of speeches began. A number of busses and cars attempting to access the venue were temporarily inconvenienced.
Cake Pop!, a well-known local drag performer and DJ, addressed the crowd gathered in front of the Center.
“The reprehensible leadership of Donald Trump and his supporters isn’t just about politics anymore,” Cake Pop! said. “It’s a full-on assault on free speech, on art and on self-expression. The takeover of the Kennedy Center is not just a political move, it’s a direct attack on every single artist, on queerness itself, and on anyone who dares to exist outside of his narrow, hateful vision of America.”
“We are living proof that no matter how much they try to erase us, silence us or shame us, we are still here,” Cake Pop! continued. “We are still fighting and we will not back down, because drag is a protest. Drag is resilience and drag is the very embodiment of joy in the face of oppression.”
Blaq Dinamyte, a drag king performer and president of the activist organization Qommittee, spoke in front of the Kennedy Center when addressing the gathered activists.
“What’s happening isn’t new,” Blaq Dinamyte said. “Throughout history, we’ve seen this before. The Nazi’s ban what they label as ‘degenerate art’ anything that didn’t fit their narrow vision of culture: Art that showed freedom, showed difference, complexity, all banned. Now it’s us.”
“When the government bans art from our national stage, they are not just attacking performers: They are attacking ideas,” Blaq Dinamyte continued. “They target drag because we are liberation. Our art makes a world where you can be who you are: Whoever that is. We are a threat to governments that would want to control how we live and express ourselves. Drag performers have always been at the front lines. Here in D.C., we’re seeing this play out on federal property. These bans hit our communities first, but they never stop with us.”
Following the march and rally, participants were invited to a dance party at the LGBTQ establishment As You Are.
“NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Feb. 10 as part of an announcement of his appointment of Richard Grenell to serve as the interim executive director of the Kennedy Center.
Trump then announced on Feb. 12 on Truth Social that he had been “unanimously voted” Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Kennedy Center.
The Kennedy Center cancelled a performance of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington that was to be held in May.
See photos from the March for Drag here.
District of Columbia
Doc on Blade reporter Chibbaro scores Emmy nomination
‘Lou’s Legacy’ chronicles 50-year career
“Lou’s Legacy: A Reporter’s Life at the Washington Blade” has been nominated for a Capital Emmy in the “Documentary – Historical” category by the National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
“Our members include all of the video content producers who serve our local audiences in Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia—from the Atlantic to the Appalachians, from Bristol to Baltimore,” said Capitol Emmys President Adam Longo in a press release.
Broadcast last June by WETA PBS in Washington, D.C. and MPT in Maryland, the documentary was directed and produced by Emmy-nominated filmmaker Patrick Sammon in association with the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. Additional nominees who worked on the film include producer Julianne Donofrio and editor Amir Jaffer.
“Lou’s Legacy” tells the story of two D.C. icons — legendary Washington Blade reporter Lou Chibbaro Jr. and beloved drag performer Donnell Robinson, known to generations of Washington audiences as “Ella Fitzgerald.” Through Chibbaro’s nearly five-decade career at the Blade and Ella’s return to the stage after a three-year hiatus following COVID, the 29-minute documentary explores the history of Washington’s LGBTQ community and today’s rising backlash against LGBTQ rights, including laws targeting drag performers.
“We’re honored that Lou’s Legacy has been recognized alongside such an impressive group of historical documentaries,” said Sammon. “This nomination is especially meaningful because the film preserves and celebrates the stories of people who helped shape queer history in Washington, DC — often without recognition from mainstream institutions. We’re deeply grateful to the Mattachine Society, Lou Chibbaro Jr., Donnell Robinson, WETA PBS, and everyone who helped bring this project to life.”
“Lou’s Legacy” premiered on WETA PBS in June 2025 during Pride month. The documentary also broadcast on Maryland Public Television and is streaming nationally on PBS.org. WETA will rebroadcast “Lou’s Legacy” several times during Pride month, including June 15 th at 9 p.m. Winners of the Capital Emmy Awards will be announced at the Capital Emmy Gala on June 20 at the Bethesda Marriott Hotel.
District of Columbia
D.C. Black Pride set for Memorial Day Weekend
Dozens of events to reflect theme of ‘New Black Renaissance’
D.C.’s annual LGBTQ Black Pride celebration is scheduled to take place May 22-25 as it has since its founding 35 years ago on Memorial Day Weekend with several dozen events in locations across the city.
Like recent years, most of the official events are scheduled to take place at the Westin D.C. Downtown Hotel, including the Opening Reception on Friday, May 22, when Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Durand Bernarr was scheduled to be among the performers.
“This high-energy reception brings together community leaders, creatives, tastemakers, and visitors from across the globe for a night rooted in connection, joy, and celebration,” according to a statement on the Black Pride website.
Also, like past years, the second day of official Black Pride events set for Saturday, May 23, will include a dozen workshop sessions on a wide range of issues and topics. The workshop sessions will take place at the Westin Hotel.
On that same day, Black Trans Pride is scheduled to take place at the hotel from 1- 6 p.m., according to the official schedule of events.
“The goal is and always has been to make sure we have events for everybody, regardless of their financial situation, regardless of their agenda,” said Kenya Hutton, president and CEO of the Center For Black Equity, the D.C. LGBTQ group that organizes D.C. Black Pride.
Hutton said this year for the first time there will be a D.C. Black Pride Fun Run. The Black Pride website says the 5k run will take place Saturday, May 23, from 8 a.m.-12 p.m. starting at the Frederick Douglass Bride near the D.C. Navy Yard.
He said another first will be a film screening of the documentary film “Not Your Average Girl,” about the life of trans woman, author, and advocate Hope Giselle, scheduled for May 22 at the nearby Eaton Hotel.
Also, like in past years, this year’s Black Pride will feature a Rainbow Row organization and vendor expo at the Westin from 5-9 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday that includes information tables set up by organizations and vendors.
The annual Pride In The Park event will take place Monday, May 25, from 12-7 p.m. at Fort Dupont Park located at 3600 F St., S.E. And the seventh annual “Brunch & Babes” drag event was scheduled for Sunday, May 24, at Hook Hall nightclub at 3400 Georgia Ave., N.W.
Among the other events taking place at other locations is a Sunday, May 24 “G-Spot Day Party” organized by local gay activist Geno Dunnington to be held at Bravo Bravo nightclub at 1001 Connecticut Ave., N.W. from 3-9 p.m. Dunnington told the Washington Blade the event will include the playing of house music, which he says played a role in local D.C. Black LGBTQ culture and in the first Black Pride celebration in 1991. The Black Pride website includes a write up of how that came about.
“From 1976 until1990, the ClubHouse in Washington, D.C. was a remarkable nightclub founded by Black members of D.C.’s LGBTQ community, widely known for its signature event – the Children’s Hour,” the write-up says. “This event was a true celebration and took place annually during Memorial Day weekend,” it says.
“When the ClubHouse closed in 1990, many feared the Memorial Day tradition would be lost,” the write-up continues. “However, three men – Welmore Cook, Theodore Kirkland, and Ernest Hopkins – envisioned creating an event that would continue the tradition of the Children’s Hour while also bringing awareness to the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in their community.”
The write-up adds, “Their vision and hard work gave life to the first Black Gay and Lesbian Pride event on May 25, 1991, on the grounds of Banneker Field,” which is located near Howard University. “This first event drew 800 people, who were centered around the theme of ‘Let’s All Come Together.’”
It says organizers expanded the scope of the Black Pride events over the next several years as it evolved and prompted Black Pride events in other cities and the formation of the International Federation of Black Prides, which later became the Center for Black Equity.
“D.C. Black Pride was the catalyst for what is now regarded as the Black Pride Movement,” the writeup says. “Since its birth, more than 50 other Black Pride celebrations now take place throughout the world, many using D.C. Black Pride as its model.”
It adds, “Today, more than 500,000 members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community of African descent and their allies come to Washington, D.C. on Memorial Day weekend to celebrate the beauty of a shared community and raise awareness and funding for HIV/AIDS in the name and spirit of Black Pride.”
Hutton said D.C. Black Pride has grown to a point where organizers cannot keep track of all the unofficial events taking place.
“There are a number of events that are not even on our website,” he said. “They’re parties. People are having cookouts. There are all kinds of things that are happening over the weekend, that are official listed events, partner events, and non-partner events.”
Hutton said that while D.C. Black Pride’s support from corporate and business sponsors has remained stable, Black Pride organizations in other cities have been hit hard by the growing reluctance by businesses to sponsor LGBTQ related events and LGBTQ organizations brought about by the Trump administration’s opposition to so-called diversity, equity and inclusion or “DEI” programs.
He said several Black Pride groups have had to curtail their annual celebrations’ scope, with some facing the prospect of cancelling their celebrations due to a sharp decrease in funds from business donors. D.C. Black Pride has also faced the impact of anti-DEI pressure from the Trump administration, according to Hutton, from businesses that have asked not to be publicly identified as sponsors.
“The administration has put pressure on some of our traditional sponsors, and we have some sponsors this year who have told us don’t put our ad, don’t put our logo, don’t put anything out” to publicly identify them as sponsors, Hutton said. “They still want to support us but can’t announce they are financially supporting us in any kind of way,” he said.
As she has in recent past years, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser this year issued an official mayoral proclamation declaring May 22-25, 2026 as “DC BLACK PRIDE WEEKEND.”
A list of the official 2026 D.C. Black Pride and partner events and their locations can be accessed at dcblackpride.org.
District of Columbia
HIV Vaccine Awareness Day set for May 18
Whitman-Walker joins nationwide recognition of efforts to develop vaccine
Whitman-Walker Health, the D.C.-based community healthcare center that specializes in HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ-related health services, will join health care advocates from across the country to support efforts to develop an HIV vaccine on HIV Vaccine Awareness Day on May 18.
“HIV Awareness Day, observed annually on May 18, was established to recognize and thank the volunteers, scientists, health professionals, and community members working toward a safe and effective prevention HIV vaccine,” Whitman-Walker said in a statement.
“Led by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the day is also an opportunity to educate communities about the critical importance of preventive HIV vaccine research,” the statement says.
It adds, “The reality is that any new vaccine discovery must be built community by community, institution by institution, and then it must reach everyone – especially the communities who have carried the heaviest burden of this epidemic.”
On its own website, the National Institutes of Health says HIV Vaccine Awareness Day also highlights its longstanding efforts, coordinated by its Office of AIDS Research, to support researchers’ efforts to develop an HIV vaccine.
“Researchers are making promising headway in efforts to develop a safe, effective HIV vaccine,” it says in a statement on its website.
A Whitman-Walker spokesperson said Whitman-Walker was not holding a specific event to observe HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, but it will recognize the day as a way of encouragement for its ongoing work to address the AIDS epidemic and support for vaccine research.
“Today, no one has to die from HIV,” said Whitman-Walker’s Health System division’s CEO, Dr. Heather Aaron in the Whitman-Walker statement. “We have the treatments, the technology, and the research to change outcomes, and yet people in our community are still dying from HIV//AIDS,” she said in the statement.
“That is unacceptable, and it is exactly why our work continues,” she added. “Here in D.C. with more focus on Southeast D.C., the Whitman-Walker Health System remains committed to making a difference through cutting-edge research, policy advocacy, and philanthropy, because fair access to life-saving treatment is not a privilege. It is a right.”
Gay Men’s Chorus celebrates 45 years at annual gala
BREAKING NEWS: Barney Frank dies at 86
Intersex lives, constitutional freedom, and the dangerous future of Ghana’s Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill
Doc on Blade reporter Chibbaro scores Emmy nomination
Don’t let Rehoboth rain deter you, there’s lots to do for Memorial Day
HIV Vaccine Awareness Day set for May 18
‘The Inheritance’ is most-nominated at this year’s Helen Hayes Awards
Calendar: May 15-21
United Night Out set for Saturday
