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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Great Read: He’s throwing WorldPride in Trump’s backyard. Who’s with him?

Great Read: He’s throwing WorldPride in Trump’s backyard. Who’s with him?

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He’s throwing WorldPride in Trump’s backyard. Who’s with him?
www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/…

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— The DC Homos (@dchomos.com) May 26, 2025 at 11:30 AM

From the Washington Post, He’s throwing WorldPride in Trump’s backyard. Who’s with him? [gift link]:

Ryan Bos has a huge party to pull off — or several parties, spanning weeks and involving road closures all over Washington, more than a hundred contracts, 25,200 reusable drink cups, a 1,000-foot long rainbow flag and Shakira.

Bos is the executive director of Capital Pride Alliance, which this year is in charge of planning and executing the festivities around WorldPride, which run through early June. It’s a huge feat of logistics, and that’s before you consider the politics: This year, the LGBTQ+ celebration is being held in the backyard of a government that has targeted transgender rights and made major cuts to HIV prevention programs. At the Kennedy Center, President Donald Trump has promised “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA”; the alliance relocated some events from the arts institution to other venues “to ensure our entire LGBTQ+ community will be welcome.” Some corporate allies have withdrawn their financial support or asked not to be explicitly associated with the celebration.

The party is still very much on. But it’s not clear how many people, welcome or not, will ultimately decide to take part…

Bos is throwing a parade; corporate America is walking a tightrope. In February, the consulting giant Booz Allen Hamilton, which has millions in contracts with the federal government, canceled its sponsorship of the celebration. Deloitte, Comcast and Darcars chose not to donate as they had in years past… A handful of other corporate sponsors are still contributing, Bos said, but covertly. As in, they don’t want to be named or have their logos displayed.

“It’s somewhat counter to Pride,” Bos said in his office after the staff meeting. “You know, we appreciate their financial contribution. Pride is about standing up and affirming and being visible.”…

There’s still enough money in the coffers for the organizers to have put together a full program with some big draws. Among the marquee events is a concert by Shakira on May 31 at Nationals Park, preceded by 30 minutes of programming about Pride. On June 6, Jennifer Lopez is set to take the stage at RFK Stadium for a ticketed music festival; Troye Sivan will do the same on June 7. The rainbow-festooned parade floats will wend their way down 14th Street toward the Capitol starting at 2 p.m. that day, and a Doechii concert on Pennsylvania Avenue will follow on June 8. Bos said he didn’t know yet whether uniformed police officers would be marching in the parade — a subject of contention at other Pride festivals in recent years — but he said it would be part of the discussion with law enforcement, adding that, as a community, “I think we have to keep an open mind about this conversation.”

Celebrations planned by certain subcommunities are already underway, including trans pride, Latinx pride, Black pride, API pride for Asians and Pacific Islanders, “silver pride” for older people, and (a new addition) military pride. Other events include a human rights conference and a protest rally.

But some queer people may not have much of a desire to make themselves visible here, now. In October, the D.C. mayor’s office said it expected up to 3 million visitors. In March, a Capital Pride Alliance official estimated that 1.5 million would come. Earlier this month, Bos said he has “no clue” how many people to expect. “I’m hopeful that we’re still going to surpass the million mark,” he said. The alliance purchased hotel blocks, but as of last week, “the hotel bookings aren’t where we expected them to be,” Bos said…

The Human Rights Campaign has fielded hundreds of questions from prospective visitors, said Brandon Wolf, the organization’s national press secretary. Wolf, a survivor of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, was at a fundraising dinner in South Florida a couple of months ago, where guests asked him about where to party but also about how to stay safe if they went to pro-LGBTQ+ demonstrations in Washington. Wolf says he has reassured people that organizers are working closely with local D.C. police, “which, as we know, is different than federal agents,” but also that “you’ve got to look at your own circumstance.”

Beyond the Beltway, in states where local governments are also enacting policies targeting LGBTQ+ people, “the vibe is a turn-towards-my-nearest-neighbor type of care,” says Zooey Zephyr, a Democratic state legislator in Montana. She’s heard about LGBTQ+ groups in Montana organizing Pride events there, or working with local clinics to make sure LGBTQ+ people have health care, but not as much about WorldPride. “I don’t think that will be the primary driver for our community.” (Zephyr might attend the WorldPride rally, but she will otherwise be preoccupied with a fellowship at Harvard.)

So will this still be fun? “I think we make everything fun,” Wolf says. “That’s just who we are, right?”

Bos says he understands that people need to evaluate their own risks when deciding to attend WorldPride, but “this is not the time to retreat.”…

Reader Interactions

47Comments

  2. 2.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    It’ll be really interesting to see the corporate presence at Denver’s ginormous Pride parade in a month.

    It’s been *massively* corporatized over the last dozen or so years.

    Two weeks later, the Black Arts Festival is held in City Park and the difference in the levels sponsorship is beyond stark…which of course isn’t shocking given the demographic changes in this city over that time frame.

  4. 4.

    trollhattan

    Okay China, stop giving Texas ideas. WTAF?

    A college in Beijing has found itself at the centre of public fury after it allegedly asked a student to prove she was on her period to qualify for sick leave.

    A viral video, filmed inside what appears to be a clinic and posted to social media this month, shows a young woman asking an older woman: “Does every menstruating girl have to take off their trousers and show you before they can get a sick note?”

    “Basically yes,” the older woman replies. “This is a school rule.”

    Local media identified the video’s location as a clinic at the Gengdan Institute university college, which later said in a statement that its staff had “followed protocol”. But social media users have decried the encounter as a serious invasion of privacy.

    Neither the student nor Gengdan Institute immediately responded to BBC News’ requests for comment.

    Both the student’s video and the school’s statement appear to have been taken down, though screenshots and snippets have been recirculated online, including by state media.

    On Douyin, China’s TikTok, a user claiming to be the student said her original account was suspended for 30 days for “pornographic content” after she posted the video.

  6. 6.

    cain

    @Glory b:

    More Dem pol death. Crazy.

    By the way, I hope this non profit is prepared to see it’s 501c3 revoked as Trump administration have been wanting to go after non profits who have “woke” policies.

    I expect that this kind of thing will make Trump put it front and center.

  7. 7.

    satby

    @Glory b: what a list of accomplishments!

    Rangel’s greatest legislative accomplishments included: championing the national Empowerment Zone program, Affordable Care Act, Low Income Housing Tax Credit, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Work Opportunity Tax Credit, Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, and the ‘Rangel Amendment’ which sounded the death knell of Apartheid in South Africa.

  10. 10.

    Harrison Wesley

    Wonder if Trump will declare all the participants are illegal aliens and will turn ICE loose on them.

  12. 12.

    Steve LaBonne

    A lot of organizations need to wean themselves off corporate donations. It’s not worth the control and precarity that come with it.

  14. 14.

    kindness

    The corporate ‘sponsors’ who asked not to be identified made me flash on that scene in Blazing Saddles where the elderly woman is thanking Sheriff Bart for capturing Mongo with an home made apple pie.  She leaves.  Immediately comes back and asks the Sheriff if he’d have the decency not to mention this to any of the other towns folk.  Sheriff Bart smiles and says ‘Of course!’.

  19. 19.

    Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)

    You get the sense that LGBTQ+ Pride is getting subsumed by American Shame.

  20. 20.

    Professor Bigfoot

    RIP Congressman Rangel; he had a good long run and done so much good along the way.

  21. 21.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Usually this time of year, stores are loaded up with Pride merchandise—even my local Target had a small section at the back of the store (despite their cowardice last year). This year… nada.

    Erasure is working.

  25. 25.

    sab

    The grandparenty couple several doors down the street from us have just started flying a Progress Pride flag. That kind of surprised me. I was just assuming they were Trumpers.

  28. 28.

    Steve LaBonne

    @sab: We two old folks have been flying one for years. And we will be doing a shift at our church’s table at the Brecksville – Broadview Heights (southern Cuyahoga County) Pride Festival on No Kings Day- Pride is equally a form of resistance.

  29. 29.

    sab

    @Steve LaBonne: It is indeed. Old white people have a lot of influence, just from the surprise factor.

    We probably should be flying one ourselves. Thanks for the nudge.

  35. 35.

    sab

    @trollhattan:USA is not the only country that degrades its women.

    Not to go too much into the gory details, but after forty years of menustration I had bad cramps twice. No big deal for me.

    I was never not aware of how lucky I was. I had friends who had very painful cramps for days. I had friends who threw up for the whole cycle. I had friends whose migraines were so bad they had hysterectomies for hope of relief.

    Also too, I never got pregnant.  Not for lack of trying.

    Prove your menstrual cycle. Wouldn’t it be easier and astoudimgly less intrusive to just mark it on your calendar? Or just fire the girls with tough periods. That is what this is about.

  36. 36.

    Darkrose

    @Sister Golden Bear: I haven’t set foot in Target since they decided to end their DEI programs and stop featuring products from Black-owned businesses; I’m not surprised.

    FWIW, last week I was at Placer Pride in Roseville with SGMC. It was nice. There were a fair number of people and no assholes–the visible security probably helped with that.

  37. 37.

    bluefoot

    A friend of mine is going to World Pride, along with several of his friends from different parts of the East Coast. So I am hopeful. I might go if I can get the time off work to travel. The thing about corporations pulling their sponsorships is disheartening.

    Btw, I hate the framing “in Trump’s backyard.” It’s OUR backyard, dammit. FFOTUS is just the current occupant. Calling it his backyard cedes way too much ground (literally and figuratively) IMO.

  38. 38.

    randy khan

    The Washington Nationals have not cancelled their annual Night Out, always held in June, and the longest-running such event in Major League Baseball.  I’ve been there before on the Night Out (and actually will be there again this year because some friends invited us for that game), and it’s a fun occasion – a lot of happy people wearing special t-shirts and other themed merch, and also a lot of sweet couples of all ages.

  39. 39.

    Glidwrith

    @Sister Golden Bear: FWIW, I just finished a crochet scarf in non-binary colors for my youngest. They proudly wore it yesterday as we walked all over the Wild Animal Safari Park.

  41. 41.

    artem1s

    @satby: @cain: he retired in 2017.

    And yet once again a Democrat had the audacity to DIE!!!!

    And BTW Biden’s not ever running for office again yet the fact that he’s OLD is still a fixation of the purity pony left.

  42. 42.

    Darkrose

    @artem1s: It’s not the “purity pony left” that’s harping on about Biden’s age. That’s 100% on the media and the Obama bros who always hated him because he had the nerve not to go to an Ivy League school.

  43. 43.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @sab: I’m trying to remember what percentage of women have PCOS which can cause irregular menstrual periods (and I think there are other causes of irregular menstrual periods besides PCOS and pregnancy)

  45. 45.

    Darkrose

    So I read the article, and this stood out to me:

    Although the U.S. government says that a visitor’s gender and beliefs about sexuality don’t render them inadmissible, Wallace, who’s trans, was skeptical.

    The State Department has said that a visa has to match your gender assigned at birth, and they no longer recognize non-binary X markers, and CBP and ICE are arresting and holding anyone they damn well please for any reason. There’s no way in hell I’d come here if I were trans. Of course, the Post doesn’t care; they’re all in on the anti-trans bullshit now.

  47. 47.

    Glidwrith

    @Kayla Rudbek: Certainly an interesting site! My next project is an infinity scarf in gradations of purple.

    I went to Pride Day with my youngest and found out purple is the color for gender diversity in Australia as well as being symbolic here to celebrate aspects of both male and female, so I’m trying to show my nibling my support.

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