District of Columbia
Final push to raise funds, fill D.C. hotels as WorldPride nears
‘We would have liked to see the city fully sold out at this point’
A final push to raise money and fill D.C. hotel rooms is underway with WorldPride 2025 just over a month away.
The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C.-based group that’s organizing WorldPride 2025 in the nation’s capital that’s scheduled to take place May 17-June 8 launched what it says is one of several fundraising campaigns in a full-page ad in the Washington Post on April 1.
With a large headline declaring, “Hate Is No Joke,” a message in the ad states, “Decades of progress in human rights are under coordinated, systematic attack. Today it’s focused on gender, sexual orientation, and race. But what’s next?”
The message then states, “Take Action. Take a stand. Donate now at WorldPrideDC.org/give.”
That site says its goal is to raise $2 million. As of April 14, the site says $12,041 had been raised from 69 donors.
In response to a request by the Washington Blade for comment on what prompted this particular fundraising campaign, Capital Pride Alliance released a statement saying the campaign was part of its ongoing effort to promote WorldPride and its multiple events.
“The Hate Is No Joke campaign is one of multiple fundraising campaigns that have been planned around the lead-up to WorldPride 2025,” the statement says. “Similar to CPA’s annual Giving Tuesday campaign and the current Taste of Pride citywide initiative, this campaign is intended to raise awareness for and funds to support WorldPride.”
The statement says the “Hate Is No Joke” campaign is being led by the local event planning company Linder Global Events, which D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser retained to work with Capital Pride Alliance in organizing WorldPride 2025.
Capital Pride Alliance Executive Director Ryan Bos told the Blade last month that CPA had set up a budget of between $15 million and $20 million for WorldPride 2025, with much of the funding coming from corporate donors. At the request of Mayor Bowser, the D.C. Council approved $5 million in city funding for WorldPride.
“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 said in referring to the city’s annual Capital Pride celebration and events. “So, we are doing our best to save whenever we can and to ensure that we have a safe and successful WorldPride,” he said.
In its statement responding to the Blade’s inquiry about the Hate Is No Joke fundraising campaign, Capital Pride Alliance said it has learned through the international LGBTQ advocacy organization InterPride, which plays a role in organizing WorldPride events, that visitors from at least 20 countries were expected to come to D.C. for WorldPride 2025.
Among those countries were Canada, Mexico, and several others from Europe, Asia, and Africa, including Uganda and Zimbabwe, as well as India, Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, China, and Thailand.
Elliott Ferguson, president and CEO of Destination D.C., an organization that promotes tourism, visitation, and events in D.C., including events like WorldPride, said he is seeing signs that hotel reservations are increasing from visitors planning to come to D.C. for WorldPride. But he said he cannot predict whether as many as 2 million or more visitors will come as WorldPride organizers had predicted earlier this year.
At Capital Pride Alliance’s suggestion, Ferguson spoke with the Blade to address the question of whether the controversial statements and policies of President Donald Trump on world trade issues and tariffs involving longtime U.S. allies like Canada and Mexico as well as the Trump administration’s hostile policies targeting the transgender community would prompt people, especially those from foreign countries, to choose not to come to D.C. for WorldPride.
“I’m not sure,” Ferguson told the Blade in an interview. “You know, I think that’s the gray area in terms of how many people will come,” he said.
“But reservations are being made. We’re seeing more of an uptick,” he told the Blade. “And we remain optimistic as WorldPride organizers and Capital Pride organizers are really focusing on the celebration of the community that’s happening in the city,” he said.
Ferguson said he and Destination D.C. were joining WorldPride organizers in putting out the message that if people disagree with the Trump administration’s policies on LGBTQ-related issues or any other issues, they should turn out for WorldPride to protest those policies.
Capital Pride officials have pointed out that among the many events planned for WorldPride is a national LGBTQ rights march on Washington that will begin at the Lincoln Memorial and travel to the U.S. Capitol.
“There’s a lot of consternation and concern about a lot of issues that have been brought to our attention by a lot of international travelers, including those that were looking at coming for WorldPride,” Ferguson said.
“What we’ve said to them is, you know, coming to WorldPride from a global perspective focusing on freedom of speech and First Amendment rights here in the U.S. is a huge part of why you should be here,” he added.
“So, as we talk to hotels, we would have liked to see the city fully sold out at this point,” he said. “But we are seeing momentum in terms of reservations being made and people coming to Washington.”
District of Columbia
Gay priest credited with boosting church support for LGBTQ Catholics
Fr. Tom Oddo’s biographer speaks at Dignity Washington event
The author of a biography of a U.S. Catholic priest said to have advocated for support by the Catholic Church of gay Catholics in the early 1970s has called Father Thomas ‘Tom’ Oddo a little known but important figure in the LGBTQ rights movement.
Tyler Bieber, author of the recently published book “Against The Current: Father Tom Oddo And the New American Catholic,” told of Oddo’s life and work on behalf of LGBTQ rights at a March 22 talk before the local LGBTQ Catholic group Dignity Washington.
Among Oddo’s important accomplishments, Bieber said, was his role as a co-founder of the national LGBTQ Catholic group Dignity U.S.A. in 1973 at the age of 29.
But as reported in the prologue of his book, Bieber presented details of the sad news that Oddo died in a fatal car crash in 1989 at the age of 45 in Portland, Ore., where he was serving as the highly acclaimed president of the University of Portland, a Catholic institution.
“He was a major figure in the gay rights movement in the 1970s, an unsung hero of that movement,” Bieber told Dignity Washington members, who assembled for his talk in a meeting room at St. Margaret Episcopal Church near Dupont Circle, where they attend their weekly Catholic mass on Sundays.
“And Dignity U.S.A. saw intense growth in membership and visibility” during its early years under Oddo’s leadership, Bieber said. “The story of Father Tom and his contemporaries is a story largely untold in the history of the gay rights movement, but one worth knowing and considering,” he said.
As stated in his book, Bieber told the Dignity Washington gathering Oddo was born and raised in a Catholic family on Long Island, N.Y., and attended a Catholic high school in Flushing Queens. It was at that time when he developed an interest in becoming a priest, according to Bieber.
After studying at the University of Notre Dame and completing his religious studies he was ordained as a priest in 1970 and began his work as a priest in the Boston area, Bieber said. It was around that time, Bieber told the Dignity Washington audience, that gay Catholics approached Oddo to seek advice on how they should interact with the Catholic Church. It was also around that time that Oddo became involved in a group supportive of then gay Catholics that later became a Dignity chapter in Boston.
In a development considered unusual for a Catholic priest, Bieber said Oddo in 1973 testified in support of gay rights bill before a committee of the Massachusetts Legislature and collaborated with then Massachusetts gay and lesbian rights advocate Elaine Noble.
In 1982, at the age of 39, Oddo was selected as president of the University of Portland following several years as a college teacher in the Boston area, Bieber’s book states. It says he was seen as a “vibrant and capable administrator who delivered real results to his campus,” adding, “His magnetism was obvious. One student described him as ‘John Kennedyesque’ to the university’s student newspaper.”
Bieber said that although Oddo was less active with Dignity U.S.A. during his tenure as UP president, he continued his support for gay Catholics and what is now referred to as LGBTQ rights.
“For those that knew him prior to his term at UP, though, he represented something greater than an accomplished university administrator and educator,” Bieber’s book states. “He was a new kind of priest, a gay man living and ministering in a world set loose from tradition by the Second Vatican Council,” the book says.
It was referring to the Vatican gathering of worldwide Catholic leaders from 1962 to 1965 concluding under Pope Paul VI that church observers say modernized church practices to allow far greater participation by the laity and opened the way for sympathetic consideration of gay Catholics.
District of Columbia
HRC to host National Rainbow Seder
Bet Mishpachah among annual event’s organizers
The 18th National Rainbow Seder will take place at the Human Rights Campaign on Sunday.
The sold out event is the country’s largest Passover Seder for the Jewish LGBTQ community.
Organizations behind the event include Bet Mishpachah, a local D.C. LGBTQ synagogue that Rabbi Jake Singer-Beilin leads, and GLOE, an Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center program that sponsors events for the queer Jewish community. The theme for this year’s Seder is “Liberation For All Who Journey: Remembering, Resisting, Rebuilding.” Rabbis Atara Cohen, Koach Frazier, and Avigayil Halpern will lead it.
The Seder will honor the late GLOE co-chair Michael Singer. Singer also served on the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center’s board.
“This Seder is both a celebration of how far we have come and a call to continue building a more just and inclusive world.” Bet Mishpachah Executive Director Joshua Maxey told the Washington Blade.
District of Columbia
Trans Day of Visibility events planned
Rally on the National Mall scheduled for Saturday
The Christopher Street Project has a number of events planned for the 2026 Trans Day of Visibility, including a rally on the Mall and an “Empowerment Ball” at the Eaton Hotel. Plenaries, panel discussions and meetings with members of Congress are scheduled in the three days of programming.
Announced speakers include N.H. state Rep. Alice Wade; Commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago Precious Brady-Davis; activist and performer Miss Peppermint (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”); Lexington, Ky. Councilwoman Emma Curtis; Rabbi Abby Stein; D.C. activist and host Rayceen Pendarvis; Air Force Master Sgt. Logan Ireland; among other leaders, advocates and performers.
Conference programming on Thursday and Friday includes an educational forum and a Capitol Hill policy education day. Registration for the two-day conference has closed.
The “Trans Day of Visibility PAC Reception” is scheduled for Thursday, March 26 from 7:30-9 p.m. at As You Are (500 8th St., S.E.). Special guests include Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nevada) and Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.). Tickets are available at christopherstreetproject.org starting at $25.
The National Council of Jewish Women and the Christopher Street Project host a “Trans Day of Visibility Shabbat” on Friday, March 27 from 7-8 p.m. at Sixth & I (600 I St., N.W.). The service is to be led by Rabbi Jenna Shaw and Rabbi Abby Stein.
The “Now You See Me: Trans Empowerment Social & Ball” is scheduled for Friday, March 27 from 6-11 p.m. at the Eaton Hotel (1201 K. St., N.W.). The trans-themed drag ball is hosted by the Marsha P. Johnson Institute with support from the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs, the Capital Ballroom Council, the Christopher Street Project, the Center for Black Equity, Generation for Common Good, and Parenting is Political. RSVP online at christopherstreetproject.org.
The National Transgender Day of Visibility Rally is scheduled for Saturday, March 28 on the National Mall at 11 a.m. The rally will include speakers and performances. Following the rally, attendees are encouraged to participate in the “No Kings” rally being held at Anacostia Park.
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