Local
Thousands expected at Capital Pride this weekend
Annual event began as block party outside Lambda Rising in 1975
Last year’s Capital Pride. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
Thousands are expected to attend Capital Pride’s annual parade and festival this weekend in the nation’s capital.
CHECK OUT ALL OF OUR PRIDE COVERAGE HERE!
Lynda Carter and Brigadier Gen. Tammy S. Smith of the U.S. Army Reserve, who became the first openly gay and lesbian flag officer to serve in the military, will serve as grand marshals of the parade that will start at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday at 22nd and P Streets, N.W., in Dupont Circle. It will end on 14th and R Streets, N.W., at Whitman-Walker Health.
The 17th annual Capital Pride Street Festival will take place on Pennsylvania Avenue between 3rd and 7th Streets, N.W., from noon to 7 p.m. on Sunday. Emeli Sandé, Icona Pop and Cher Lloyd will headline the main stage. Tom Goss and Eric Himan will also perform during the event.
NBC4 forecasts partly cloudy skies with a high temperature of 83 degrees on Saturday and a chance of thunderstorms on Sunday with an afternoon high of 83 degrees.
Pride committee chooses superhero theme
Capital Pride Executive Director Ryan Bos highlighted this year’s theme as he discussed the annual event.
“We wanted to have a little more fun with the theme and identified something that the community could rally around, dress up as a costume and participate,” he told the Washington Blade. “We thought it was really easy for folks to grab a hold of.”
What became known as Capital Pride traces its history to a one-day community block party that then-Lambda Rising bookstore owner Deacon Maccubbin first held on 20th Street, N.W., in Dupont Circle in 1975.
The P Street Festival Committee in 1980 took over what had become known as Gay Pride Day. It relocated the festival to Francis Junior High School, and became known as Gay and Lesbian Pride Day in 1981.
Pride of Washington succeeded the P Street Festival Committee in 1990.
The festival began to suffer from financial difficulties a few years later. One In Ten, the organization that produces the Reel Affirmations film festival, took over the Pride events. The group then moved the street festival to Freedom Plaza on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Capital Pride culminates month of LGBT gatherings
The parade and festival will cap off a series of events over the last few weeks that celebrated the Pride season.
These include an immigration reform panel and a bilingual Mass that took place during the seventh annual D.C. Latino Pride on May 30 and June 2. Casa Ruby and 10 other Latino LGBT groups organized what they described as an alternative to D.C. Latino Pride with events that will take place from June 4-9.
The 23rd annual D.C. Black Pride took place from May 23-25. Capital Trans Pride took place at the National City Christian Church in Thomas Circle on May 18.
D.C. Frontrunners will hold its first annual Pride Run 5K in Congressional Cemetery in Southeast D.C. at 7 p.m. on Friday.
Brian Beary, race director for D.C. Frontrunners, said 750 participants have signed up to take part in the race. He said 50 percent of the event’s proceeds will go to Team D.C.’s scholarship fund for gay high school students who hope to attend college.
“This is a way to kick-off your Pride weekend,” Beary said.
The 2013 Capital Pride Parade route.
2013 Capital Pride Street Festival.
The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at [email protected].
The Comings & Goings column also invites LGBTQ college students to share their successes with us. If you have been elected to a student government position, gotten an exciting internship, or are graduating and beginning your career with a great job, let us know so we can share your success.
Congratulations to Yadiel Meléndez, on their new role as Community Associate, with the Wanda Alston Foundation. Meléndez is piloting a new role as a Community Associate at the Wanda Alston Foundation, where they support queer and trans young people in finding their footing, building independence, and experiencing a housing community where they are seen, valued, and affirmed. They are coming into this role with more than a decade of experience as a community organizer and operations specialist, supporting diverse communities through service, advocacy, and program coordination.
Previously they worked for Right Proper Brewing Shaw as a server and bartender and at Sephora, Washington, DC, and at FreshFarm, DC, in bilingual food access. They also worked freelance to build foundational structures for local queer BIPOC performance art coalitions, producing variety shows to curate space for marginalized performance artists in the community. They were a production manager for Haus of Hart Productions, a BIPOC centric performance art production. They also worked as field staff with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in Stafford, Va.
Meléndez is bilingual, Spanish and English. Their work is guided by a commitment to dignity, safety, and trauma-informed engagement, particularly within LGBTQ and BIPOC communities.
Congratulations also to Ben Rosen LICSW, on his new role as program director, with the Wanda Alston Foundation. Rosen previously worked with Fountain House’s OnRamps program, helping to build a new, innovative outreach program for individuals considered chronically homeless, and living with serious mental illness, in the Times Square area of New York. Rosen is a Psychotherapist, having worked with SG Psychotherapy, and as the psychotherapist with the Nest Community Health Center (URAM).
Rosen has a B.F.A. in Theatre Arts: Musical Theatre, Minor in Psychology (Cum Laude) from Malloy University Conservatory; and his M.S.W. in Clinical Practice with Individuals, Families, and Groups, from The Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College, N.Y. He is independently licensed in New York and Washington, D.C.
Rehoboth Beach
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
Attendees encouraged to wear appropriate gear
Diego’s in Rehoboth Beach hosts a monthly leather happy hour. April’s edition is scheduled for Friday, April 10, 5-7 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to wear appropriate gear. The event is billed as an official event of BLUF, the free community group for men interested in leather. After happy hour, the attendees are encouraged to reconvene at Local Bootlegging Company for dinner, which allows cigar smoking. There’s no cover charge for either event.
District of Columbia
Celebrations of life planned for Sean Bartel
Two memorial events scheduled in D.C.
Two celebrations of life are planned for Sean Christopher Bartel, 48, who was found deceased on a hiking trail in Argentina on or around March 15. Bartel began his career as a television news reporter and news anchor at stations in Louisville, Ky., and Evansville, Ind., before serving as Senior Video Producer for the D.C.-based International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union from 2013 to 2024.
A memorial gathering is planned for Friday, April 10, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at the IBEW International Office (900 7th St., N.W.), according to a statement by the DC Gay Flag Football League, where Bartel was a longtime member. A celebration of life is planned that same evening, 6-8 p.m. at Trade (1410 14th St., N.W.).
Minimal version of ‘Streetcar Named Desire’ heading to Dupont Underground
Comings & Goings
An effort to increase the number of psychiatrists of color
Calendar: April 10-16
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
Cuba under pressure and without answers
Tenn. lawmakers pass transgender “watch list” bill
Vance speaks at Orbán rally in Hungary
Amendments to India’s transgender rights law criticized
