Washington Blade 40 Years of Pride in D.C.

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WE’VE BEEN OPEN

FOR OVER 40 YEARS.

BUT THIS STILL DESERVES A COMING OUT PARTY. Our new location will allow us to continue to serve Washington’s LGBT community, as well as the broader neighborhood, with services that include primary care, dental, legal and more.

Everyone is welcome at 1525 14th St, NW. Note that some services will remain at the Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center (including the Tuesday/Thursday evening STD clinic). For more information, visit Whitman-Walker.org/1525

202-745-7000

Whitman-Walker.org

Deacon Maccubbin, owner of gay bookstore Lambda Rising, which closed in 2010, started what has become Capital Pride in 1975 with a one-day community block party on 20th Street, N.W. where his store was located at the time. About 2,000 attended the gathering, held on Father’s Day with a dozen booths and for

In

vendors D.C.

its

set

City

heyday,

up.

Several

candidates

Council

attended

Lambda

Rising

as

well.

was

a

de

facto gay community center and frequently hosted and years,

author

other the

readings,

LGBT event

book

events. was

signings

W ithin

attracting

a

few

about

10,000 and had spread out to three blocks.

It was a heady time for the movement. Inspired by the Stonewall Riots of 1969 in New York City, commemoration events were burgeoning around the country and Washington had a thriving gay and lesbian scene of its own (the

The street party ‘70s SPONSORED BY

LGBT moniker didn’t come into wide use until much later). Several local groups were well established by this time — The Academy of

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Washington (founded 1961), Washington Blade (founded 1969), the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance (then known as the GAA, founded 1971),

Metropolitan

Washington

Community

(founded

1970)

Church

and

of

others.

Early D.C. Pride events had a family-type appeal and were — as they are today — a place for various arms of the community, from drag outfits to activist groups to leather lovers and beyond, to let their hair down for the day. Then-Mayor Marion Barry, elected the previous November, attended his first Gay Pride Day as mayor in 1979 and continued throughout his years in office and beyond.

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY JOHN M. YANSON

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The P Street Festival Committee was formed in 1980 to take over Gay Pride Day, as the festival was known, and the annual event was held on the grounds of Francis Junior High School at 24th and N streets, N.W., and the adjacent P Street beach.

By the following

year, the event had been dubbed Gay and Lesbian Pride Day and the first parade was held beginning on 16th Street, N.W., and Meridian Hill Park and ending at Dupont Circle.

Ups and downs of the ‘80s SPONSORED BY

The event grew exponentially in those years from about 11,000 in 1981 to 20,000 by 1983, though it ebbed and flowed with fewer than 10,000 attending in 1986 and 1987.

Washington, like San Francisco and New York, was particularly hard hit by HIV and AIDS

and

the

urgency

and

frustration

of the time was well represented at the gatherings, which had expanded to a weeklong event by 1984 with about 28,000 at the street festival and parade combined.

The first Pride Heroes were named in 1984.

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY JERRY MCCOY

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY BRAD GREEN

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY JERRY MCCOY

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY LEIGH MOSLEY

WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY DOUG HINCKLE

WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY JIM MARKS

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY DOUG HINCKLE

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY DOUG HINCKLE

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The P Street Festival disbanded in 1990 and

Pride

continued

with

a

new

entity,

Pride of Washington. The event was also moved to the week before Father’s Day so as not to impede on the family holiday.

By

1991,

the

festival

had

expanded

to

about 200 booths and for the first time, active duty and retired American military personnel

marched

in

the

parade.

Rain

affected attendance several years in a row and

the

festival

flirted

with

bankruptcy.

In 1995, One in Ten, a D.C. organization that hosted an annual film festival, took over and moved the festival to Freedom Plaza

The turning tide of the ‘90s SPONSORED BY

while the parade route started at Francis Junior High School and ended at the plaza.

Attendance picked up going from about 25,000 in 1994 to more than 100,000 by 1996.

In

1997,

Whitman-Walker

Clinic,

as

it

was then known, joined One in Ten as a co-sponsor Capital rose to

and

Pride.

the

dramatically nearly

event

Corporate

$250,000

going the

was

renamed

sponsorships from

$80,000

following

year.

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY DOUG HINCKLE

WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY DOUG HINCKLE

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY DOUG HINCKLE

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY KEVIN YUM

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY KRISTI GASSAWAY

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY CLINT STEIB

WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY KRISTI GASSAWAY

WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY KRISTI GASSAWAY

WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY CLINT STEIB

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY CLINT STEIB

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY CLINT STEIB

WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY CLINT STEIB

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In 2000, Whitman-Walker became the sole sponsor and the festival moved again, this time to Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., between 4th and 7th streets, and the festival’s main stage was repositioned so that the U.S. Capitol building

was

visible

in

the

background.

By 2002, parade contingents reached 200 and in 2004, about 100,000 attended the various Pride events. Financial problems, however, continued to plague the event with the city agreeing in 2005 to waive thousands in street closing and police overtime fees while the Human Rights Campaign agreed to

an

emergency

donation

Attendance,

however,

with

200,000

about

making

it

in

country.

the

the

of

$30,000.

remained attending

fourth-largest Several

strong in

2006

Pride

event

events,

such

as

A new millennium, a new day SPONSORED BY

dance parties, a youth prom, a transgender event, leather pride and more were now under the overall Capital Pride umbrella.

By

2007,

several

other

local

non-profits

joined Whitman-Walker to form the Capital Pride Planning Committee. In March 2008, Whitman-Walker

awarded

the

production

rights to the newly formed Capital Pride Alliance,

a

group

of

volunteers

and

organizations formed by members of the Capital Pride Planning Committee. By 2009, the Alliance was the sole producer of the event.

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY CLINT STEIB

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY I. HOPE

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY ADAM CUTHBERT

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY ADAM CUTHBERT

WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY ADAM CUTHBERT

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY ADAM CUTHBERT

WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY HENRY LINSER

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The in

event 2010

reached

and

its

35th

continued

to

anniversary expand

its

offerings with about 60 events held over a

10-day

250,000

period

and

attending

a

the

record

high

of

street

festival.

About 100,000 watched the 2013 parade.

A

color

by

the

guard U.S.

officially

Armed

Forces

2014

parade,

The

eight-member

guard

each

branch

U.S.

Numbers

an

of

sanctioned joined

unprecedented

the

remained

event.

represented armed

strong

the

for

forces.

the

2014

The tipping point ‘10s?

SPONSORED BY

parade with about 100,000 again at the parade total

and

for

(Various

early Capital

the

250,000

various

sources

compiling previous

about

weeklong

were

these

Pride’s

Guide

history

in

including

Blade

Pride own

in

events.

consulted

write-ups,

Washington Capital

estimated

and

articles, books, more.)

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY JOHN JACK PHOTOGRAPHY

WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY

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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY

WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY

WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY

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washington blade archive photo by doug hinckle

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The Washington Blade Foundation is a nonprofit organization established to preserve and make accessible the paper’s 46 years of archives. To make a tax-deductible donation, visit washingtonbladefoundation.org

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Congratulations Capital Pride on 40 great years!