District of Columbia
WorldPride hotel bookings hint at disappointing turnout
Welcome events set for this weekend but predictions of 3 million visitors not panning out
Beneath the optimistic press releases from WorldPride D.C. organizers lies a disappointing reality: Predictions of up to three million visitors traveling to the region for the events are not materializing.
Indeed, a quick look at hotel occupancy rates reveals wide open availability across D.C. for the June 6-9 weekend with many hotels offering discounted rates.
LGBTQ activists from Europe, Mexico, Canada, and other parts of the U.S. have announced they decided not to come to Washington, D.C. for WorldPride because of the hostile, anti-LGBTQ policies of President Donald Trump and his administration. The activists indicating they would not come to WorldPride D.C. have said they were especially concerned over the Trump administration’s anti-transgender policies.
Kyle Deckelbaum, an official with Destination D.C., an organization that promotes tourism and large-scale events, and that has been supporting WorldPride D.C. for at least two years, said his group has received differing reports about the attendance at WorldPride.
He said that as of May 21, the most recent data show that hotel bookings for the WorldPride opening ceremony weekend of May 30-June 1, and for the closing ceremony weekend of June 6-8, are down by 3 percent compared to the same two weekends in 2024. D.C.’s regularly scheduled annual Capital Pride Festival and Parade took place the second weekend of June 2024.
But Deckelbaum points out that the 3 percent lower bookings are for D.C. hotels only, not those in the surrounding Virginia and Maryland counties, where many WorldPride participants are expected to stay. He also notes that bookings do not reflect the full “occupancy” of a hotel room, saying it is common that two or more visitors can share a hotel room.
“The way to look at hotel booking pace is it is a kind of indicator of travel, but it does not necessarily indicate occupancy, nor would it indicate attendance,” he said, referring to the overall attendance at WorldPride.
Deckelbaum said another factor is that there are more hotels that have opened in D.C. since last year, increasing the supply of rooms, which could account for a slightly lower booking rate.
“And there are a lot of factors at play outside of WorldPride, where occupancy has been tracking just below last year every weekend this year because there is a decrease in international visitation,” he said. “That’s overall to the U.S., that’s not D.C. specific.”
On the optimistic side, Deckelbaum notes that a “surge in positive op-ed articles from around the world” have appeared recently in support of WorldPride D.C. in newspapers in countries such as United Kingdom and Canada.
“We are seeing an uptick in op-ed submissions from international markets that explain people’s reasons for coming,” he said.
Last month, Elliott Ferguson, president and CEO of Destination D.C., told the Blade he could not predict whether as many as 2 million or more visitors would come as WorldPride organizers had predicted earlier this year.
“So, as we talk to hotels, we would have liked to see the city fully sold out at this point,” he said.
The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C.-based group serving as lead organizer of WorldPride D.C., has pointed out that the local D.C. government has a longtime strong record of support for the LGBTQ community. They have also argued that LGBTQ activists should come to WorldPride as a form of protest against the Trump administration, among other things, by joining the planned LGBTQ and allied March on Washington for Freedom, set to take place June 8 and travel from the Lincoln Memorial to the U.S. Capitol.
Ryan Bos, executive director of Capital Pride Alliance, said the group doesn’t believe media reports of lower hotel bookings are predictive of the actual number of people that will turn out for WorldPride D.C. Although he did not offer a prediction of the size of the turnout, he said the enthusiasm and large number of people who turned out for the first week of WorldPride events was impressive.
“The energy and respect among each other were energizing and continued as other events popped up through Latinx Pride and API [Asian Pacific Islander] Pride and this past weekend with D.C. Black Pride, which was a huge success,” he said.
“People understand this is an historic moment, how important it is that our community supports each other, that every LGBTQ business, organization, social group that we rally together to ensure that our community shows up,” Bos told the Blade in a May 27 phone interview.
“Celebration is a form of protest,” he said. “So, protest is defiance, resilience and joy. And it’s not just about WorldPride,” Bos continued. “This is about us ensuring that we can persevere and be resilient across our country and around the world. And to ensure that all of our Prides continue to take place and that we do not go back in the closet.”
He added, “We have nearly 300 events between the ones Capital Pride Alliance is organizing to all the amazing partners in the community to have something for everybody, and we are excited to welcome so many who deserve to be seen so they can experience the D.C. that isn’t the federal government, that is part of this fabric of freedom, this community, these neighborhoods that make D.C. such a great place to live.”
A statement released on May 27 by WorldPride D.C. 2025 organizers says the events that began May 17 and dozens more set to take place through June 8 represent a “celebration of LGBTQ+ culture, identity, and unity.”
The statement adds that the events make up a “packed calendar of festivals, sports, concerts, and cultural experiences marking 50 years of Pride in D.C.”
It points out that this week’s highlights included the start of the WorldPride Film Festival, scheduled for May 27-29, the annual Pride Flag Raising ceremony organized by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, which was set for May 29, and the kickoff of the Capital Cup Sports Festival set for May 30-June 4.
As if that were not enough, the organizers’ statement notes that the WorldPride Welcome Ceremony and Concert set for Saturday, May 31, at the Washington Nationals baseball stadium with headliner Shakira performing and welcoming remarks by key dignitaries would set the pace for the remainder of the WorldPride events.
But while indicating all is going according to plans, the statement does not respond to multiple media reports that earlier predictions that WorldPride D.C. would attract between two and three million visitors does not appear to be happening.
WorldPride organizers announced last week that actress and trans activist Laverne Cox, powerhouse performer Reneé Rapp, and LGBTQ trailblazer Deacon Maccubbin will serve as grand marshals for this year’s WorldPride parade set for June 7.
“I am so honored to serve as one of the grand marshals for WorldPride this year. This has been one of the most difficult times in recent history for queer and trans people globally,” Cox said. “But in the face of all the rhetorical, legislative and physical attacks, we continue to have the courage to embrace who we truly are, to celebrate our beauty, resilience and bravery as a community. We refuse to allow fear to keep us from ourselves and each other. We remain out loud and proud.”
“Pride is everything. It is protection, it is visibility, it is intersectional. But most importantly, it is a celebration of existence and protest,” Rapp said.
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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