Individuals watch the Capital Satisfaction Parade in 2024 in Washington, D.C.
Aaron Schwartz/Center East Photographs/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
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Aaron Schwartz/Center East Photographs/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
WorldPride 2025 wraps up in Washington, D.C., this weekend with festivities together with a parade that may kick off Saturday in one of many metropolis’s historic homosexual neighborhoods and conclude in entrance of the U.S. Capitol.
That is the primary time that D.C. has hosted the worldwide LGBTQ+ competition since WorldPride’s inaugural occasion in Rome in 2000.
This yr additionally marks the fiftieth anniversary of Satisfaction occasions in D.C. — one of many largest Satisfaction celebrations throughout the nation that sometimes gathers a whole lot of hundreds of attendees over a number of days of celebration.
Regardless of the same old magnitude of Satisfaction festivities within the nation’s capital, Satisfaction organizers say the present political atmosphere has dampened the thrill surrounding the celebration of life and self expression.
Talking to NPR this week, a number of members of the queer neighborhood expressed reservations about attending Satisfaction occasions in D.C., given the variety of government orders signed by President Trump that restrict the rights of trans folks.
And a variety of high-profile company sponsors which have supported the occasion previously have declined to take action this yr within the wake of Trump’s government order concentrating on “unlawful DEI” initiatives within the federal authorities.
Nonetheless, regulation enforcement officers are getting ready the town for a big celebration.
That features the controversial resolution by the Nationwide Park Service this week to shut Dupont Circle Park — thought-about by many as one of many metropolis’s queer landmarks — throughout WorldPride’s finale weekend.
Staff put up fencing round Washington, D.C.’s Dupont Circle on Friday.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
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Mark Schiefelbein/AP
The transfer sparked quick backlash, together with from native elected officers.
Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Joe Bishop-Henchman wrote on X earlier this week that the closing could be “like NYC cordoning off Stonewall or SF blocking the Castro,” a reference to 2 different well-known homosexual neighborhoods in New York Metropolis and San Francisco.
